| The Queen revisiting Treetops, Kenya |
The Queen revisiting Treetops, Kenya, the remote lodge where she stayed as Princess Elizabeth just before the death of King George VI in 1952 |
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A young woman sits in a treehouse overlooking a watering pool, taking snaps of the wild game playing around her. It might be anyone enjoying gap year travels in an unfamiliar continent, but the year was 1952 and the young woman was Princess Elizabeth at the start of a long Commonwealth tour undertaken on behalf of her father. Only two days later, on 6 February, the news arrived that King George VI was dead and that a new Queen reigned.
It seems apt that the reign of the most widely travelled monarch in history should have begun overseas. Representing the UK abroad has become a vital part of The Queen's role as Head of State as it has been for no other monarch.
At the end of her Golden Jubilee year, The Queen has undertaken 251 official overseas visits to 128 different countries and made six circumnavigations of the globe.
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Destinations of The Queen's visits have included some of the most famous sights in the world: the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in India, Venice, the bright lights of Hong Kong, the rainforests of South America, Kathmandu, the geysers of New Zealand and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Menus at official entertainments have often included local delicacies: sharkfin soup, barbecued turtle, buffalo, smoked reindeer, raw fish, roast bat and rat.
Transportation has been just as varied: The Queen and Prince Philip have travelled by Royal barge, Venetian gondola, native canoe, rubber dinghy, ceremonial elephant and chariot carried aloft by men in Borneo.
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Such travels have been without precedent in the history of the British monarchy. Until the early twentieth century travel outside Europe was almost unknown. When the king or queen travelled abroad it was in exceptional circumstances - to go to battle, make a pilgrimage, meet other monarchs for political negotiations or visit relatives in other European royal families.
Developments in transportation technology in the last 50 years have made these journeys possible. In the first two decades of The Queen's reign many tours were carried out by sea on the Royal Yacht HMY BRITANNIA, since air routes and aircraft ranges were limited. This meant that many early Commonwealth visits took several months.
| The Queen and Prince Philip arrive in Tuvalu |
The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh arriving in style in Tuvalu in the South Pacific, 1982 |
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The longest official tour of The Queen's reign was an epic round-the-world Commonwealth tour in 1953-54. It lasted six months from 23 November 1953 to 15 May 1954 and covered 43,618 miles. During the tour periods of up to 16 days at a time were spent at sea travelling between destinations. Much of the travelling took place on a liner named Gothic, as the Royal Yacht had not yet been completed.
The invention of jet aircraft - popularised in the 1960s - made air travel a safe, reliable, quick and relatively inexpensive option for Royal travel. It took over three weeks for The Queen to travel between Jamaica and New Zealand by way of Fiji and Tonga. In 2002 the same trip took only hours by air.
The second enormous change during The Queen's reign has been in the number of countries visited officially by a British monarch for the first time.
From the start of her reign, The Queen has travelled to almost every corner of the Commonwealth, from the vast territories of Australia and Canada to the Cocos Islands in the remote Pacific, which cover only 5.4 square miles and have a population of 655.
| The Queen and Prince Philip at a feast in Tuvalu |
The Queen and Prince Philip at a banquet of local dishes during a visit to Tuvalu in the South Pacific, 1982 |
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The Duke of Edinburgh carried out two long trips on the Royal Yacht which took in even more remote locations - Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and even the British research station in Antarctica.
The breaking down of political barriers has made it possible to visit countries never dreamt of by earlier monarchs. One of the first historic milestones came in 1965, when the first State visit to West Germany since two World Wars was deemed possible by the governments of the day. The tour included a visit to West Berlin, pausing in front of the Berlin Wall.
Visits to the Far East have also been groundbreaking. The State visit to Japan which took place in 1975 marked a new stage in British-Japanese relations after the Second World War, and the South Korea visit in 1999 strengthened relations with the Far East further. Equally important was The Queen's visit to Communist China in 1986, the first State visit paid by a British monarch.
| The Queen and Prince Philip at the Great Wall of China |
The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh pause to enjoy the view at the Great Wall of China during an historic State visit in 1986 |
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With the thawing of the Cold War, State visits became possible to former Communist countries. The 1990s saw a series of historic visits to the former Eastern Bloc: Russia (1994), Poland (1996), Hungary (1993) and the Czech Republic (1996).
The destinations may have changed throughout The Queen's reign, but one thing has remained constant. Overseas visits are far from a holiday, and have played a vital role in helping The Queen fulfil her duties.
Commonwealth visits help to reaffirm the ties of the far-flung Commonwealth family. During her reign The Queen has visited Australia 14 times, Canada 20 times, Jamaica 6 times and New Zealand 10 times. The only country in the Commonwealth which The Queen has not visited is Cameroon, which only joined the Commonwealth in 1995.
Through State visits The Queen has represented Britain abroad at the highest level, cementing existing ties and creating new ones with other countries. The Queen has generally made one or two outward State visits each year of her reign, planned on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The next such visit will be to Belgium in March 2003.
Travelling with The Queen is either the Foreign Secretary or one of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers, to advise on any political problems that may arise and to emphasise the fact that such visits are undertaken to generate an atmosphere of goodwill. It is often a good moment for the minister in attendance to do some bilateral business with the host government, and opportunities are always created for him or her to have talks with their opposite number.
Given the official nature of the visit, The Queen and Prince Philip have been more likely to visit hospitals, schools, markets and local manufacturing plants than ruins, churches, museums and other sights. In Hong Kong in 1975, for example, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh paid a visit to the fourth-floor towerblock flat of a local family.
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Nor are affairs at home neglected while travelling overseas. Throughout her travels, whether on the Royal Yacht, train or plane, The Queen has had the red boxes with her containing State papers, which are sent to her throughout her visits. Officials from the Royal Household ensure that hospitality is reciprocated through the presentation of gifts and a return banquet hosted near the end of a State visit.
Despite careful planning, enormous improvements in transportation and the far-flung nature of travel today, some drawbacks are still unavoidable.
Delays are sometimes unavoidable due to transport problems, weather or unforeseen circumstances, and a contingency plan must occasionally be put into action. Although The Queen does not need a passport (since passports are issued in the name of Her Majesty), Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family do, and customs forms are filled in for the Royal party. Nor can health risks be ignored. All members of the Royal travelling party receive the standard inoculations and health advice recommended for the country concerned.
Perhaps Royal trips overseas are not so different from those of regular travellers after all.
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