Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II landed at Newport Quay for a 2-day visit to the Isle of Wight on 26th July 1965.
The Queen and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh were conveyed from the Royal Yacht Britannia moored at Cowes by royal barge to the County Town, where she was greeted by a fanfare of silver trumpets. She then walked along crowded streets to the Guildhall for a civic reception before visiting St Thomas’ Church where she viewed the tragic memorial to Princess Elizabeth – daughter of King Charles I – who had sadly died aged 13 at Carisbrooke Castle over 350 years previously.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were then driven to Carisbrooke Castle, where Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma was installed as Governor, Captain and Steward of the Isle of Wight.
Handing Earl Mountbatten a scroll of letters patent during the colourful ceremony, the Queen remarked that there had been a special connection between the Crown and the Isle of Wight ever since Edward I had acquired the rights to the Island in 1283.
The royal couple then went to Osborne House, and then on to Westlands, where they saw the SRN1 hovercraft and the Black Knight research rocket. They then toured the eastern half of the Island, visiting the Royal Victoria Yacht Club at Fishbourne and Ryde.
The Queen and Prince Philip split up, with the Queen heading to Ventnor, where she planted a fir tree at Ventnor Park, visited Ventnor Winter Gardens and met the Isle of Wight’s oldest inhabitant: 105-year-old Fredrick Yelf. She then went to Shanklin where she visited the cliff lift and the chine, before heading off to Sandown – her final port of call for the day.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Edinburgh went to inspect the new Islander aircraft at Britten-Norman in Bembridge. The royal couple then reunited and were driven back to Cowes, where they visited the Royal Yacht Squadron before returning to Britannia for the night.
The following day, the Queen and the Duke travelled to Yarmouth on the royal yacht. The Queen left Yarmouth on an SRN-5 hovercraft for the RAF base on Thorney Island. However, the hovercraft suffered an oil leak, so the Queen was taken ashore in a naval launch.
Queen Elizabeth and her husband then stayed at Goodwood House with the Duke and Duchess of Richmond and Gordon and attended Goodwood Races.
Were you present when the Queen visited the Island 60 years ago? Did you ever meet the Queen? Let us know in the comments.
All us Queen’s Scouts lined up at Carisbrooke Castle but could barely see Her Maj.
Working that summer vacation at Mew Langton’s (bottling mainly fizzy pop, but with two beer-breaks per day) before going to university, I had an excellent view of Liz & Phil’s landing off their “barge” at the Quay — we hard workers were given an hour off to stand on the back of a beer lorry parked on the present-day Quay Arts side of the river. Weren’t we privileged!!
I was working for J Arthur Dixon at Forest Side. The company kindly allowed all staff to go to Carisbrooke Castle to see the Queen. Of course, we were not allowed inside the grounds.
We watched at Newport Quay in the old Rope store where my godfather was parked as a sail maker/rope maker as the queen land d on the small jetty by the flats now and she was given a rousing cheer from all the boat workers and a loud and hostile from my godfather..
My brother Brian was there with the Territorials. They all looked on top form.