Here he shares his memories and photos of the day Rosemarie Frankland returned home to Rhosllanerchrugog, near Wrexham, after becoming the first UK entrant to win the title in 1961

In those days my family lived five houses away from Rosemarie's grandmother, Fanny Green, in Mountain Street and Rosemarie, like me, was just one of the Gornel kids, as that area of Rhos bounded by Hall Street and Mountain Street was called.

I was five years younger than Rosemarie and of course the younger kids were treated as the babies when it came to playing "house" so, in fact, you could say that I was "mothered" by a future Miss World.

I can remember her leaving Rhos to live in Lancaster with her family but we did see her from time to time when she visited her grandmother, who kept us informed regarding Rosemarie's beauty career.

I think the whole village must have watched her win the Miss World title on TV and without being biased in any way, she was the most beautiful of all the contestants that night.

She kept her promise as Miss Wales to attend the Wrexham Leader Ball that year and, of course, was the guest of honour.

When myself and the local kids realised she was stopping at her grandmother's for the occasion we camped for days on the wall opposite Fanny Green's door, next to Charlie Bennet's shop.

Rosemarie must have thought the young paparazzi had descended on Rhosllanerchrugog.

I had my Kodak camera (with flash bulbs - quite high tech for those days) with me in the hope that she might appear. She had little choice really, with all the chanting of "we want Rosemarie" we were making, and eventually she posed for me personally outside her grandmother's door, a moment I will always remember.

She visited many neighbours while she was here and I followed her every move. I managed to take a priceless picture of her, complete with white boots and blue trousers walking down "the yard" with her proud grandmother. (Trailing not far behind was my late father, Tommy Rogers which makes the picture even more personal.)

Fanny Green invited me in to take a picture of the beautiful dress that Rosemarie would wear to the Leader Ball. That night we were all outside the house to see her car arrive and then another moment I will always treasure, when she blew me a goodbye kiss and a smile as she left for the ball.

There were rumours, that during her stay for those few days, she received a phone call from Bob Hope. As phones were a luxury, the nearest phone was in the local Sun Inn pub in Hall Street.

I cannot confirm that it was Bob Hope but she indeed was called from her grandmother's to take an important call at the pub; I watched it happen.

Rumour has it that he wanted to finalise arrangements for Rosemarie to tour American Military bases worldwide with him, which she subsequently did.

That night of the ball was the last time I can remember seeing Rosemarie in person but I was always interested in any media reports of her life. The news of her untimely death took my mind back to those happy days when she was really on top of the world and it seemed such a waste.

She really put Rhosllanerchrugog on the map and even though she spent the best part of her life in England/America, she was still as Welsh as I am, and proud of it. God rest Rosemary.