FEATURE
The Queen, Devon and the Platinum Jubilee In 2022, Her Majesty The Queen has become the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee, after 70 years of service. She is the longest reigning monarch in British history, surpassing Queen Victoria’s reign of 63 years. Queen Elizabeth II has often visited Devon, not least because of its important naval connections and her role as Head of the Armed Forces. However, it was also where she met her future husband, Prince Philip. As the elder daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Elizabeth had no expectation of acceding to the throne, until her uncle, Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 and her father became King George VI. As a 13-year-old princess in 1939, she visited Dartmouth Naval College with her family and was formally introduced for the first time to Prince Philip of Greece, a naval cadet at
Brixham 1988, courtesy & © Torquay Museum
the college, providing the first opportunity for them to become acquainted. In 1942, aged 16 she visited HM Naval Base Devonport, with her father King George VI, and four years later, she and Princess Margaret returned as Sea Rangers to visit HMS Duke of York. Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip married in 1947, and just four years later King George VI’s health started to deteriorate, leading to his death on 6 February 1952. Elizabeth’s reign started immediately, but as a 6
Queen Elizabeth II at Torquay Town Hall 1956, courtesy &© Torquay Museum
mark of respect her coronation was not held until 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey. The Queen’s coronation was a day of huge celebration. In Tavistock a full day of events was planned by Tavistock Urban District Council, starting with a floral dance at 9am from Bedford Square and around the town (despite the rain), followed by sports, tea parties, fireworks and finishing with an evening of dancing in the town hall and in Bedford Square. The children’s tea party as reported in The Tavistock Gazette, sounds particularly lively! - “Eleven hundred children attended the tea party in the Market Hall (Pannier Market)… and immediately grace was said there was a rush by two thousand two hundred hands to reach the food all of which was rapidly devoured. The sandwiches were wrapped in cellophane bags and it was not long before one child realised that blowing air into the bag and bursting it produced a loud bang. This was almost immediately followed by the deafening sound of all the other cellophane bags in the Market Hall being burst. Then another child realised the empty cardboard plates had aerodynamic properties and immediately the Hall was filled with eleven hundred banking, diving, soaring, swooping and descending paper plates. Immediately one landed it was thrown again. Councillors, helpers and children were hit by the projectiles.” (You can see the Coronation Day issue of The Tavistock Gazette at Tavistock Museum) The Queen has often returned to Devon during her reign, visiting the Dartmouth and Torquay area, Exeter, Barnstaple
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