Today's 90th birthday celebrations for the Queen have rekindled a clutch of golden memories for Bankies who remember the Royal visits that characterised the glory days of Clydebank's world-beating yards.

But the Queen's historic connections with Clydebank include several visits to the town - most recently in 2012 during her Diamond Jubilee year tour.

Her most famous appearance was certainly for the 1967 launch of the QE2, but she was back in 1986 to meet staff at Queen Margaret's Hospice, and again in 2003 to see Clydebank's then newly upgraded Clyde Shopping Centre.

Ashley Dougherty, who was a Whitecrook Primary pupil at the time, had the honour of speaking to Her Royal Highness.

She told the Post after the visit: 'I expected her to stay for an hour or something but I won"t forget it. 'It was very special.'

Then five years later she was here with Prince Philip to officially open the West of Scotland Regional Heart and Lung Centre at the Golden Jubilee Hospital.

She later attended a lunch at the Beardmore Hotel - joined on to the Dalmuir hospital - to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS.

The royal connection with the town was already well-established by 1934, when Queen Mary (visiting Clydebank with King George V), had the unique honour of launching a vessel bearing her own name.

Clydebank's reputation as being a world class shipbuilding town was thoroughly proved almost two decades before Elizabeth became Queen - and was resoundingly endorsed through the launch of the QE2, and also the royal yacht Britannia, which was launched in the coronation year of 1953 (said to be the royal couple's special favourite, before it was de-commissioned).

She and Prince Philip arrived at Clydebank's Rothesay Dock aboard Britannia on Monday, June 28, 1965, for a whirlwind tour of West Dunbartonshire which included a visit to the Singer Sewing Machine Factory - and returned two years later for the launch of the QE2,

Her Majesty possibly never got to find out - as the Post reported in 2007 - that the QE2 didn't quite launch on time, because the flag boy was overawed by the occasion.

Back in 1967 apprentice Edward Rae was given the honour of providing the final signal for the launch, but was so engrossed by the Queen's arrival at the scene he forgot to do his key job.

Edward later told the Post: "My gaffer was screaming at me to try to get my attention. So actually the QE2 was a few minutes late getting launched because I had got caught up in the moment."

Born in Dalmuir, Edward worked at John Brown"s yard for 12 years before embarking on a teaching career at Clydebank College.

In 2012, Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee year, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh paid a return visit to St Margaret's of Scotland Hospice before continuing to Our Holy Redeemer's Primary, where the couple enjoyed lunch in

a specially-provided marquee.

There she was met by Rear Admiral Michael Gregory, Lord-Lieutenant for Dunbartonshire, and Sister Rita Dawson, St Margaret's of Scotland's chief executive.

Armed forces personnel lined the route to the hospice, while in the grounds the hundreds of specially-invited guests cheered as she began her visit - to the strains of the national anthem.

Sister Rita showed her a series of specially-created display boards charting the long history of the day care centre, and she also toured the hospice education centre and hydrotherapy pool while meeting hospice staff and

patients.

The Queen enjoyed catching up with Hospice staff she'd first met in 1986, when the Hospice was just a single storey building - and finding out about how it had expanded since then.

She also studied photos of another royal visit - by her daughter, Princess Anne, in 1998.

Among those who later confessed to feeling a little nervous about meeting the Queen was Dr Pamela Sheenan, who was thrilled when she stopped to chat to her.

"She just said to me: 'It must be a good job that you do' - and I said it was a great job," Dr Sheenan recalled.