Haslemere came alive with patriotic fervor on 3 November 1903 as King Edward VII passed through on his way to Midhurst to lay the foundation stone of the sanatorium that would bear his name.

His Majesty arrived at Haslemere station at 11.55am to the triumphant strains of the Haslemere Bands, who performed as if the whole town’s pride depended on it.

Viscount Middleton, the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, was there to greet the King, while nearly 100 uniformed men of the 2nd Volunteer Brigade of the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, led by Captain the Hon Arthur Broderick, stood smartly to attention in a gleaming guard of honour.

The King’s open landau carriage proceeded along Kings Road, a street hurriedly scrubbed and renamed from its less regal former monikers of Foundry Road and Gas-house Lane.

Children from Haslemere School, dressed in their Sunday best, were marched to Foundry Meadow to cheer, standing precariously on makeshift boards under the watchful eyes of headmaster GH Tyler and Miss Palmer, the headmistress.

As the royal carriage passed, King Edward graciously doffed his hat to the sea of waving hands and fluttering Union Jacks.

The procession itself was a spectacle, with both the Bridger and Institute Bands playing in harmony for the first time - a symbolic prelude to their eventual merger into the Haslemere Band after the First World War.

The carriage rolled past the gasworks, a Victorian relic of industry, as townsfolk craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the monarch.

After the ceremonial duties at Lords Common, the King returned to Haslemere for his 1.55pm train to Waterloo.

The day was rounded off in style on 14 November, when the High Sheriff of Surrey, Mr Walpole Greenwell, hosted a lavish dinner at the Swan Hotel to toast the town’s royal brush with history.