WHEN the new King Charles was still a Prince and the Duke of Rothesay, he made a visit to East Kilbride to meet scientists and innovators at the cutting-edge National Engineering Laboratory.

It fell to NEL employee Dan Harris to explain to the royal visitor the wonders of emerging computer technology.

Glasgow Times:

“He was shown around at least six buildings, each with a different type of research or development work going on, so he was probably suffering from mental fatigue by the time I started speaking to him,” laughs Dan, who moved to East Kilbride from Maryhill in the 1950s.

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“But he showed a lot of interest in the work I was involved in because the use of this technology by that point, 1979, was spreading fast throughout the world.”

That meeting with the future King is not Dan’s only regal connection.

“It has dawned on me that I have lived during the reign of five monarchs - George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth and Charles III,” he says.

“I was an evacuee during the Second World War and recently, I discovered that when our late Queen was a young Princess, she and her younger sister did a radio broadcast devoted to evacuees. She did most of the talking and expressed sympathy and support for evacuees.”

Dan’s first job after completing his engineering apprenticeship at Weir Pumps in Cathcart in 1952 was to assemble a heat exchanger for the Royal Yacht Britannia.

“I spent the next two years doing my National Service,” he adds.

“Many years later, an appeal went out from the office at the Royal Yacht Britannia asking for anyone who was involved with the building of this ship to contact them. I was duly sent two complimentary tickets to visit the ship.

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He laughs: “I went with my wife Marion, thinking I might see my wee heat exchanger in the engine room but my viewing was restricted to looking through a window at what could have been a sterile room in a hospital.

"Everything was covered in spotless thick white insulation. No sign of a drip of oil anywhere.”

Dan adds: “I think as King, Charles will try to do his best, but he will have a different style from his mother. He will certainly be concerned about what is going on in the world, and will express his opinions.

“It is sad that the Queen is gone, but I think the fact she died in Scotland gives us Scots the opportunity to show the world that we had great respect for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.”