As tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London to watch the Coronation of King Charles III, 500 scouts from around the world were there to lend a hand - including two from High Peak.

Matt Senior from 1st Dinting and Ethan Williams from 1st New Mills and the Greater Manchester East County Youth Commissioner were selected from more than 5,000 nominations.

Matt said: “It was a real honour to have been invited to be a part of scouts first duty to the king and it was great to see scouts being in a position to help the public on such a momentous occasion.

“It presented such a sense of community with everyone present, scouts and otherwise, even though nobody had met before which is what scouting is all about.”

Ethan said: “To be one of the 500 out of 57 million scouts across the world was an incredible honour to be there and to be asked. It was the proudest moment of my life, and I don’t know what can top it just yet. Maybe something in the future will.”

Those chosen had to travel down on the Thursday before the coronation for training and to find out what their responsibilities would be.

Ethan told us more about the day itself. “We were up early, and the coach left the campsite at 4am, especially when you have 500 people also wanting to use the showers and wanting to get breakfast.”

They had all stayed at Gilwell campsite at scout headquarters in Essex overnight, before travelling an hour and half into the centre of London.

“I arrived at Hyde Park at 5.30am, Matt was at St James’s Park,” said Ethan.

“We had a really quick debrief and roles for day and stand in our designated areas. We began the day handing out flags to young people and families.

“There were four big screens at Hyde Park over 300,000 people went through Hyde Park that day trying to get to the big screens.”

The wet weather didn’t put a dampener on the day, with the role for the scouts coming to an end by around 3.30pm.

“It was an absolutely incredible experience - one I definitely won’t forget in a hurry,” said Ethan.

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