The date was Saturday, the 30th of May 1953, just three days before the new monarch's coronation, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, in Westminster Abbey and the first meeting of the West Kent Dog Walkers were about to begin.
From his position at the head of his highly polished oak dining table, the Brigadier looked around at the eight seated members of the society he had created, little knowing that before the end of the following month,...