Pomp and circumstance. Curtsies and coat tails. Feathers and flora. Menus and medals. These, and more, are the stuff of Royal visits wherever the Queen and her consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, go. In advance of the couple's arrival, there is wholesale sprucing up of the countryside and all venues where the Royal feet will tread, for like all good hosts, every destination wants to put its best foot forward for its most distinguished guests.

With the eyes of the world momentarily on that country or island, and the accompanying Press hungry for the slightest whiff of potential headline material, no stone is left unturned, no functionary uninformed, no serviceman or woman untrained, no dignitary unschooled before the Great Arrival.

As Britain's oldest colony, and with five Royal visits by the Queen and Duke under its ceremonial belt, Bermuda is a practised destination which knows how to roll out a red carpet with the best of ‘em. Indeed, the Island received its first recorded Royal visitor, Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1861, so it was hardly surprising that, when the Queen chose Bermuda as the first destination on her post-coronation Commonwealth tour in November, 1953, it swung into high gear and prepared meticulously to assure the most royal of welcomes for the first visit by a reigning monarch. Welcoming arches of greenery and flowers were erected, bunting and flags were hung, shops were picked clean of women's finery, and the weatherman co-operated with mostly sunny skies. The newly-crowned Queen's itinerary called for engagements throughout the Island, including the obligatory signing of books, loyal addresses, planting of trees, addressing a joint session of Parliament and the Legislative Council, visiting this and inspecting that, and a state dinner at Government House.

In advance of the Queen's arrival, however, a major storm erupted over the lily white guest list, drawn up according to strict protocol, for what was to be the high point of the royal visit: a state dinner at Government House. Given that Her Majesty would meet people of all colours, races and creeds during her Commonwealth tour, the exclusion of black Bermudians from such an important event was viewed by the black population here as a major insult to themselves, and in particular the nine Members of Colonial Parliament whose presence in the House of Assembly they regarded as a significant achievement. The omission quickly received unfavourable coverage in the British press. London's Daily Mail newspaper warned the Queen about the “snobbery” of Bermuda, and also attacked what it called the Governor's “puerile blunder”, and by implication the insulting of all other Commonwealth people of colour. The Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph also joined in the attack. A House of Commons motion signed by Labour MP Fenner Brockway asked for Bermuda's precedence list be revised to include more black representatives. The matter was also hotly debated in Parliament here, but the guest list stood. However, at a subsequent garden party at Government House to which some black people were invited, the Royal couple moved separately through the guests. Among them was black Bermudian teacher, Girl Guide, and protector of disadvantaged children, Miss Millie Neverson, who was to be presented to the Duke. Due to her short stature, however, she became hidden by the crowd and was visibly nervous that she would be overlooked. However, the Duke's white escort, Mr. C. Vail Zuill, was on the lookout for her and brought her forward for presentation. Aware of her worry, the tall Royal visitor bent almost double to chat with the diminutive figure for longer than he did anyone else.

The following month, at a less formal dinner for the three principals of Big Three conference, Churchill, Eisenhower and Laniel, the guest list included two prominent blacks, Mr. G.A. Williams and Mr. E.T. Richards. Other glitches in the monarch's 1953 tour included the accidental overlooking of war veterans Hugh Watlington, D.F.M., A.W. Flood, and R.C. Butler, who were due to be presented at Albouys Point. Another was the vetoing of a proposed unofficial gift to the Queen. A miniature of Her Majesty, painted in oils on ivory by Mrs. Doreen Musson, and set in a silver frame surmounted by a gold St. Edward's crown inset with diamonds, was deemed by Governor Lt. Gen. Sir Alexander Hood as “not coming under the category of gifts Her Majesty is able to accept”. When the British Overseas Airways stratocruiser ‘Canopus', piloted by senior captain Loraine, set down on the tarmac at Kindley Field on the morning of November 25, 1953 it was to an official welcome headed by the Governor in full dress uniform, plus local dignitaries, an honour guard, and crowds of cheering residents.

The party then proceeded to Emerging to rousing applause from the packed crowds, the Queen and Duke then motored to Albouys Point, where they embarked on the ferry-boat-cum-royal-barge Wilhemina for a cruise through the Great Sound to Mangrove Bay and a tour of the West End. At 5.30 a.m. the following morning, November 26, the Queen and Duke departed Government House by limousine, accompanied by the Governor and Lady Hood. In sharp contrast to the jubilant scenes of the day before, the Royal entourage returned to the airport along dark, deserted roads to rejoin ‘Canopus' for a six-hour flight to Jamaica. Seeing the couple off were the obligatory dignitaries, among them the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, the Colonial Secretary, the Speaker of the House, and the commanding officer of Kindley Air Force Base, as well as a small honour guard provided by the Bermuda Rifles and the Bermuda Militia Artillery. Leave-taking was mercifully brief, following which the beautiful young Queen and her handsome Prince waved good-bye to the skirl of a bagpipe played by Tommy Aitcheson, official piper to the Caledonian Society. At two minutes past 6 a.m. ‘Canopus' began its roll down the runway, and ten minutes later it was a mere dot in the sky.

It would be 22 years before the Queen and Duke jointly visited Bermuda again. On February 16, 1975 Governor Sir Edwin Leather stood on the tarmac with a group of local dignitaries, and a Bermuda Regiment honour guard to welcome the couple. The visit lasted 48 hours, during which time an estimated 25,000 people saw the Royal couple at close quarters, and scores more were presented. Along the route from the airport to Government House some 15,000 waved flags and home-made banners and cheered as the distinguished entourage passed by.

The following day the Queen and Duke used three modes of transport to complete their itinerary, beginning with a morning landeau ride to City Hall and thence to Front Street, where they transferred to a car for their journey to Dockyard - a switch caused by the cancellation of a proposed ferry ride due to a strike by Government workers. At Dockyard, the Queen opened the Maritime Museum and described the collection of items recovered from the seabed by Teddy Tucker as “amazing”. Next came a stop at a spot below Gibbs Hill lighthouse, where Her Majesty unveiled a plaque dubbing the site ‘Queen's View', and then it was off to Warwick Camp for lunch with the Bermuda Regiment. In the afternoon, the Duke was helicoptered to Nonsuch Island where, in the absence of a landing pad, history records that he was obliged to wade through two feet of water to reach terra firma, and the fascinating wonders it held.

The action-packed day ended with the glitter and gourmet dining that is a Speaker's Dinner. Here, amid the best bibs and tuckers, sparkling jewels, forests of flowers and fine wines, toasts were made and addresses given before everyone left the Southampton Princess hotel to sleep on the memories. February 17 began with the obligatory tree-planting in the grounds of Government House before the Royal couple set off for the National Stadium, where they were greeted with great enthusiasm by local school children. In an interesting twist, the Queen presented the Duke of Edinburgh awards. Then, to the delight of the children, and despite Mother Nature's churlish display of light rain, the Royal couple went walkabout, chatting animatedly with the excited youngsters.

Thereafter, an estimated 2000 souls, including Mayor Norman Roberts, turned out to greet the Royal couple in the packed Town Square of St. George's. There they visited the Town Hall to sign the visitor's book and inspected the replica Deliverance, firmly “berthed” on Ordnance Island.

Later that day, the Royals took their leave with due ceremony at the Civil Air Terminal before flying home to London. In their wake, officials hailed the two-day visit as “an unqualified success”, the flags were stowed, and normal life resumed on the spit and polished land. The heat of a 1976 summer proved no deterrent to the Queen and Duke who used their four-and-one-half-hour stopover between arrival at the Civil Air Terminal and departure from Hamilton on the Royal yacht Britannia to once again mingle with the masses. Their crammed July 3 itinerary began with the usual airport welcoming ceremony led by Governor Sir Edwin Leather before the couple were whisked by car to Hamilton, there to be greeted by a wild cheering from an enthusiastic crowd straining at the barriers. A visit to the House of Assembly included presentation of Members of Parliament before the couple journeyed by landeau along a route lined by Sea Cadets to Front Street. From the deck of Britannia, the Royals listened to music by the Bermuda Regiment Band, following which local sportsmen, including Bermuda's lone Olympic medallist, boxer Clarence Hill, were presented. Then, to the strains of ‘Auld Lang Syne' played by the on-board Royal Marines band, and accompanied by a flotilla of spectator boats, the Queen and the Duke sailed into the sunset. In their wake, Governor Leather declared Her Majesty “absolutely thrilled” with her visit, adding that if the thousands who packed Hamilton were any indication, Bermuda was equally delighted to see their monarch again. A few brief stopovers en route to other destinations occurred between 1978 and 1994.

The Queen and the Duke's last major tour here in March, 1994 included several surprises. First, following her arrival on the afternoon of March 8, the monarch stopped for an impromptu chat with the large, enthusiastic group of children gathered at the airport gate, during which she happily accepted a posy and a plaque from two amazed young donors. The following night Premier John Swan surprised more than Her Majesty by making a much-criticised pitch for independence during his after-dinner speech before 500 guests at that most formal of occasions: the Speaker's Dinner, which was held at the Southampton Princess Hotel. Trained from childhood never to flinch, wince or weep in public, the Queen maintained a stoic silence as her host told her it was time for Bermuda to shuck its British colonial ties and go it alone. The story, of course, was meat to the potatoes of covering a Royal tour for the foreign press, and the ripples cast by this stone spread far beyond the bounds of Bermuda. At the same event, former Governor Sir Edwin Leather discovered to his sorrow that his miniature set of medals were missing. They included three decorations presented by the Queen, as well as others from his Canadian army war service in Britain and Europe.

These calamities at the Speaker's Dinner were, however, the lone flies in an otherwise unsullied honeypot of sweetness and light, and during their 44 and one half hour stay the Royal duo happily fulfilled a packed itinerary which gave them practically nothing but bath and bedtime out of the limelight. Beginning on March 8, there was a visit to sun-kissed St. George's. Arriving in the Governor's Daimler with a starch-jacketed Police escort, the Royals alighted to a joyous welcome from the Mayor and other dignitaries, and of course the ecstatic crowd. Following the signing the visitor's book and a walkabout on King's Square, the Royal entourage strolled up Water Street for a visit to the Tucker House museum. While the Queen continued touring the old town, the Duke went on to the Bermuda Biological Station, where he participated in a Jason Project live link-up with scientists in Belize. Later, when the couple were reunited at Government House, the Queen bestowed her New Year's Honours on ten recipients, including Court of Appeal judge Sir James Astwood. The following day, as temperatures climbed into the mid-70s, the Bermudian welcome was equally warm wherever the Royals went. The first duty of the day, the planting of yet another tree in Government House grounds, was followed by a trip to City Hall for culture and coffee. The couple's visit to the Will Onions-designed edifice included a reception in his parlour by Mayor William Frith and members of the Corporation of Hamilton, and subsequent visits to the Bermuda National Gallery by the Queen and the Bermuda Society of Arts gallery by the Duke.

When alleged plans to quietly remove from royal gaze the large, unflattering portrait of the monarch hanging on the stairs of City Hall were apparently scuppered by an earlier leak from this newspaper, it was subsequently reported that as it caught her gaze on the way out, the Queen's smile was replaced with an expression of “bemused wonderment” and “a lingering backward glance” .

While the Duke proceeded on foot to view restoration work at the Anglican Cathedral and have coffee with Bishop Down, the Queen toured the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where she charmed patients, medical staff, and spectators alike. A surprise line-up of Welsh corgis as she departed the hospital grounds prompted an unscheduled stop of the official car, a winding down of its window, and a beaming royal thank-you from within. A joint tour of the Bermuda College campus concluded with a luncheon at the Stonington Beach hotel, following which the Duke presented awards named after him, while the Queen motored to Dockyard to visit restoration work at Commissioner's House and receive a set of commemorative gold coins from the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Then it was on to the Clock Tower building for more dignitary-meeting before boating back to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. The couple then headed a motorcade along Front Street to the Botanical Gardens in Paget for a display of the performing arts presented by eight groups including the National Dance Theatre of Bermuda, the Portuguese Cultural Association folklore dancers, the Bermuda Majorette Drill and Drum Corps, and the H & N Gombey Crowd. On March 10 the sovereign marked the end of her royal visit by presenting at Government House her personal Royal Victoria Orders to local tour organisers and dignitaries, including her host, Governor Lord Waddington, and former Cabinet Secretary Kenneth Richardson. Gifts were also distributed to others involved in caring for the Queen and Duke. Following formal good-byes at the Civil Air Terminal, a Royal Air Force VC-10 bore the Queen away under rainy skies, while the Duke of Edinburgh returned to Government House for a few more hours prior leaving for The Bahamas. It fell to deputy Governor Kelly to announce that the Royals had “found Bermuda an excellent end to their overseas tour” .