RETIRING mayor of Winchester Jean Hammerton is coming to terms with the fact that she may never make it on to the Queen's honours list.

Recalling her year in office, she has revealed that she committed a faux pas that in harsher times might have led to her being beheaded.

Councillor Hammerton, pictured above with her successor councillor Cecily Sutton, has confessed that she stepped on the Duke of Edinburgh's toes during a royal visit to Winchester.

It happened in November when the Queen and her husband opened the new Adjutant General's Corps museum at Peninsula Barracks and unveiled the Golden Jubilee statue outside the city's law courts.

Disaster struck as the mayor was seeing the royal couple off afterwards.

She said: "I was just saying goodbye to the Queen and didn't realise he was behind me. You are a bit anxious talking to her and I was concentrating on that rather than what was behind me and I trod on him. I just said: 'I'm so sorry' and he laughed."

The incident was referred to as one of the highlights of the year by fellow councillor Georgina Busher as she gave a vote of thanks to the retiring mayor at Winchester's annual council meeting.

Cllr Busher said: "She managed to apologise gracefully to the Duke of Edinburgh after she trod on his foot, rather hard, on seeing the Queen into her car."

Cllr Hammerton revealed that she had enjoyed the mayoral year immensely. She said: "Nothing can prepare you for an amazing year, having the privilege to see so many places and meet so many interesting people."

She said she was moved to meet so many children with special needs and disabilities.

Particularly enjoyable was the luxury of having a guaranteed parking space in the heart of Winchester.

Lessons learned included never giving Australian red wine to French visitors at the mayoral residence, Abbey House.

Another was to take more care in reading name badges at candlelit dinners at the Worthy Down base.

At one she turned to armed forces commander General Sir Michael Jackson and asked: "What do you do in the Army?" He replied: "Madam, I run it."

Cllr Hammerton's year in office has raised thousands of pounds for worthy causes.

Her chosen charities were the Magpie Appeal to build a cancer care centre at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital; SNAPS, which provides activities for children and young people with disabilities in Winchester; Heartstart UK, which promotes emergency life support training throughout the district, and the Bishop's Waltham and Meon Valley Citizens Advice Bureau.