9:30am Thursday 11th June 2009
By Laura Kitching
THOUSANDS of people were gathering in Weymouth and Portland today for the visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
It is the latest in a long line of visits from the Queen dating back to 1939 when she arrived on the royal train with her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
On Tuesday, June 20, 1949, the then Princess Elizabeth and her husband the Duke arrived by train from Waterloo station to Weymouth station.
The platform had been specially prepared with 100 feet of carpeting flanked by flowers and plants.
The Lord Lieutenant of Dorset met the royal couple and thousands of people lined the roadsides as they were driven through the town to Portland Dockyard on ‘a flaming June day’.
Local historian Maureen Attwooll said the Royal pair passed through on their way to the Channel Islands.
She said the Queen returned in April 1959 and surprised the crowds by bringing Prince Charles, aged 10, to visit the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle.
On Thursday, June 25, 1981, the royal couple stepped from ‘the punctual-to-the-minute royal train on to a flower and flag-bedecked platform’. An Echo report at the time said: “A cheer from hundreds of well-wishers rocked the Brunel architecture to its foundations.”
On this occasion the Queen and the Duke were visiting the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Fort Austin at Portland.
They were met at the station by the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset Col Sir Joseph Weld.
It was reported that the royal couple greeted a group of disabled people from the Acorns day centre. The Duke asked 15-year-old Richard Boston, of Avenue Road, Weymouth, how fast his chair went.
His mum Pauline Boston said her son, who had muscular dystrophy, passed away three years later, aged 19.
She said: “He was delighted by the visit and came back full of it.”
The following day the royal couple visited the Navy’s newest supply ship, the Fort Austin, on Portland.
Pam Rowe of Easton had a surprise when her two sons, Delwyn, nine, and Gary, seven, lost their nerve in presenting the Queen a rose and the honour was passed to her instead.
Send us your pictures of the royal visit and we will feature them in the Dorset Echo. Email them to newsdesk@dorsetecho.co.uk
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