IN John Henry Smithingale's day, you celebrated a monarch's jubilee by raising a pint of stout to the King and standing for the National Anthem.

You would be lucky to get some bunting and a paper hat, never mind a rock concert at Buckingham Palace and a Hell's Angels drive-past.

But Mr Smithingale - who like the rest of the nation celebrated King George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935 - had one thing in common with last week's golden jubilee revellers.

He celebrated the event with the help of The Northern Echo.

And it was his well-preserved commemorative edition of the paper that his daughter, Betty Pickering, uncovered in her loft last week.

Pottering around in the attic of her home in Oak Hill, Coulby Newham, she came across the 67-year-old memento while hunting for old insurance documents - which she still has not found.

Mrs Pickering, 73, explained how she came across the little piece of history.

"Before she died, my mother put lots of old pictures and stuff in an old case that followed us around whenever we moved house," she said.

"I had completely forgotten about it, but when I went to look for some insurance details in the loft I found it.

"I wasn't sure if it was the genuine article at first, but it certainly looked old enough."

Her father, who died more than 30 years ago, worked on the docks in Teesside for most of his life.

Mrs Pickering's husband, Eric, believes his father-in-law had been a patriotic man.

"He never had a bad word to say about the royal family," he said.

"He was one of those fellows who would stand to for the National Anthem and take his hat off at a funeral.

"He also kept lots of things to commemorate important national events like this," he said.