A COWDENBEATH woman has reflected upon the reign of Queen Elizabeth II after witnessing both the beginning and end of her time as monarch.

Isabel Crichton was invited to the Queen’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1952 with the Fife Guides when she was just 15.

Seventy years later, Isabel crossed the Forth to Edinburgh as Her Majesty was moved to St Giles Cathedral where she lay at rest before Monday’s funeral service.

Recalling the first of two historic events she was in attendance for, Isabel commented: “We were taken down in a coach to the coronation and it was pouring rain.

“We were just on the route, we weren't actually outside Westminster, but they had a stage where we were supposed to go and oh, she (Queen Elizabeth II) was lovely; in her golden coach!”

After the Queen’s passing was announced on September 8, Isabel’s family suggested she go to Edinburgh to watch the coffin enter the cathedral with her granddaughter, Sophie.

That was from her coronation to her death, all those years.

"I was fair away with myself, going to the coronation and then when Sophie took me on Monday, it was very emotional,” the School Street resident said.

“That's why my family suggested that I go, to see the hearse. It was the beginning and the end, really."

Isabel felt it fitting that the Queen passed away in Scotland – at the age of 96 -, as she believes the people of Scotland “loved her just as much” as those south of the border.

She said: “I'd seen her once or twice when she had passed through Cowdenbeath - doing different things - but that was years ago now!

“I mean, you never saw her without a smile on her face."