It really was a case of looking back over a career of "working man and boy'' in the port of Southampton when terminal operator, John Amey retired after 46 years in the docks.

John began work in the port at the age of 15 in 1957, joining the old Southern Railway as a messenger boy and then over the years gaining promotion to become head shunter for passenger trains in the docks when locomotives were still driven by steam.

"I used to put together Pullman coaches for the trains that would carry passengers from the old Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth from the docks up to Waterloo,'' said 62-year-old John, a keen cyclist, from Nursling.

"It was an honour to be on the footplate of three royal trains, carrying the late Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and the Queen, and escort them into the docks and to the old Ocean Terminal.

"In 1972 when the railway in the port was coming to an end I went over to crane driving.

"There was no lifts to get up the cranes in those days, you just had to climb and in all sorts of weather.''

Colleagues at Southampton Container Terminals where John operated straddle carriers and cranes presented him with an engraved clock to mark his retirement.