Royal Wedding eye-witness: Police get me to the church on time

I flew to Gatwick from Edinburgh and got the Gatwick Express into the city, but the station I was told to go to turned out to be closed when I got there. By the time I came out at St James's Park it was 9:40am, and I had been told to be there by 10am.

I actually got stuck in the crowd and could not even climb over one of the barriers. I was a bit worried I was going to miss the whole thing.

A policewoman helped me and arranged for an escort with another officer, who took me under their wing. As I arrived at the front door of the abbey, I got a huge cheer from the crowd.

When I finally got inside, I saw the Lord Provost of Dundee, John Letford, who told me Elton John had been sitting in my seat a few minutes beforehand. I was pretty much right next to the door, but was at the back of the abbey, so couldn't see an awful lot.

The whole occasion was terrific, it had a real festive feel to it, especially considering all the doom and gloom everyone has been going through lately.

As a former minister of more than 40 years, I thought it was a pretty simple ceremony and very like many I have conducted myself. The whole thing ran right on time and although some people were going on to have lunch with friends, I had to fly back up to Edinburgh, and was back in the house by 7pm.

• George Grubb is the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.