In just a few days’ time the nation will celebrate a royal wedding when Prince Harry weds Meghan Markle, but on May 15th, 1954, Britain was celebrating the safe return of its young royal family after a six-month absence.
Queen Elizabeth II, who had acceded to the throne just two years earlier, had been out of the country on an extensive seven-month tour of the Commonwealth. She was accompanied on the trip by her dashing young husband, Prince Philip, and joined for the final leg of it by their two children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
The trip was no holiday, but a working tour introducing the new monarch to 13 Commonwealth countries for which she was the official head of state. For many, including Australia and New Zealand, it was the first time they had been visited by their reigning monarch.
The trip covered more than 40,000 miles, mostly travelling by air and land, with the newly-commissioned Royal Yacht Britannia drafted in for the final leg. Everywhere the royals went, huge crowds turned out to greet them. It was estimated that three-quarters of the entire population of the vast Australian continent turned out to see the Queen in person at one of her many official visits.
No doubt part of the allure was the chance to see a young and vibrant royal couple, who were bringing a fresh and less formal touch to the monarchy. For the Queen and Prince Philip, it was their first intensive tour of official duties – a commitment which has since stretched over six decades.
While most of the trip was work, the royals could at last relax on the final leg aboard the new royal yacht. She had been launched by the Queen in April 1953 and commissioned in January 1954, when the Commonwealth tour was already under way. Her maiden voyage began on April 14th when she set sail from Portsmouth to meet the Queen and Prince Philip a week later at the port of Tobruk, on Libya’s Mediterranean coast.
Over 400 feet long and with a crew of 250 ‘Royal Yachtsmen’ and 21 officers, she was an ocean-going palace, guarded by a platoon of Royal Marines. Also on board for that maiden voyage were five-year-old Prince Charles and his three-year-old sister Princess Anne, sailing to be reunited with their parents after six months apart.
The final three weeks’ cruising in the Mediterranean then home to Britain must have been a welcome relief after such a demanding tour. Prince Philip, an experienced naval officer, was also said to be frequent visitor to the bridge during the voyage.
The royal yacht’s first port of call on returning to British waters was the Isle of Wight, where Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill came aboard for the final day of the journey. Having spent the night on board, he was alongside the royal family on the ship’s ‘saluting platform’ as Britannia steamed up the River Thames into the heart of London.
Thousands of spectators lined the river, cheering and waving flags to greet the royals. Ships’ sirens and factory hooters were blown and a huge red and white ‘Welcome Home’ banner decorated Tower Bridge. It was fully raised to let the royal yacht through, followed by an armada of small boats crammed with well-wishers.
First to board Britannia after docking were the Queen Mother and the Queen’s younger sister, Princess Margaret. There had been some concern towards the end of the trip over the Queen’s health, after reports that she looked tired and strained, but she appeared cheerful and well on her return, if a little thinner. As the royal party disembarked, a thundering 41-gun salute rang out from the Tower of London.
They made their way in three carriages to Buckingham Palace through streets thronged with cheering crowds. They had only been at the palace for 10 minutes before appearing on the balcony in response to chants of “We want the Queen!”. With the crowds showing no sign of dwindling, they would make three more balcony appearances right up to 11pm, with the crowds only persuaded to disperse after lamps floodlighting the palace were turned off.
Over the next four decades the royal yacht would make many more voyages, sailing more than a million miles on official duties. She was finally decommissioned in 1997 and is now permanently berthed in Edinburgh where she is a major tourist attraction, hosting more than 300,000 visitors every year.