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Follow in the footsteps of the Queen’s first Commonwealth tour: 11 countries the Queen visited

Queen Elizabeth II’s first Commonwealth tour in 1953 and 1954 still holds the record as the longest Commonwealth tour to date. Here are 11 places Queen Elizabeth II visited…

The Queen was the most well-travelled Monarch and her legacy of exploring the world started her first year of taking the throne, with her first commonwealth tour taking place between 1953 to 1954. The tour still holds the record as the longest commonwealth tour to date and in nearly six months, the Queen travelled some 44,000 miles across the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Asia. Here are 11 countries that she visited.

The Queen visited St Peter’s Church in Bermuda (Shutterstock)

The Queen’s first ever Commonwealth tour started in Bermuda in November 1953. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh only spent 24 hours in the country but made the most of their time, visiting St Peter’s Church and the capital city of Hamilton. The Queen went on to visit the country more times during her reign including in November 2008 when she visited alongside her husband to celebrate Bermuda’s 400th anniversary.

Kingston, Jamaica (Shutterstock)

From Bermuda, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh went to Jamaica where notable moments included the royal couple waving from an open Land Rover to thousands of onlookers at a rally in Sabina Park in Kingston and attending a dinner at King’s House. While her first visit saw the Queen only spend a day in Jamaica, she had the time to slow down and see more of the country on future visits, going to Jamaica a total of six times between the years of 1953 and 2002.

Navala village in Fiji (Shutterstock)

The next stage of the Queen’s journey took almost a month as she departed Jamaica on the 27th November and arrived in Fiji on 17 December. It was the first time a British Monarch had set foot on the island. Upon arrival, the Queen was presented with a bouquet of flowers from a child Fijian princess. A welcoming ceremony then took place in Albert Park in Suva, Fiji’s capital where people gathered to see the Queen. During her time here, the Queen enjoyed numerous cultural performances including traditional dancing, singing and ceremonies.

It was the first of many visits to Fiji, with other members of the royal family following in the Queen’s footsteps including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2012 and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018.

Royal Palace in Nuku’alofa on Tongatapu island, Tonga (Shutterstock)

Next on the tour was a 400-mile flight to Tonga. Here, the Queen met the Tongan royal family in the capital, Nuku’alofa. During her time here, Queen Elizabeth II paid her respects at Tonga’s war memorial and later tucked into a feast of whole roast pigs, roast chickens, yams and tropical fruit alongside thousands of guests. The banquet took place on a low, long table with the Queen sitting on the floor along with the other guests.

5. New Zealand

Aukland’s skyline (Shutterstock)

In December 1953, the Queen became the first monarch to visit New Zealand , and spent Christmas in the country, giving her traditional Christmas Day message from the Government House in Aukland where she spoke about the travels she had been enjoying, thanking her ‘hosts very warmly for the kindness of their welcome and the great pleasure of our stay”. This would be her first of many visits to the country where she is called Kotoku, Maori for the white heron which is a rare but cherished bird in New Zealand. During her many visits over the years, the Queen made a point of travelling widely throughout the country and meeting local New Zealanders from all different walks of life, listening to their stories and seeing their customs and traditions first-hand.

6. Australia

Sydney (Shutterstock)

From New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh journeyed to Australia, another place where the monarch would continue to visit regularly throughout her reign, forging a personal relationship with the country. On that very first visit, the Queen started in Sydney before enjoying tours alongside her husband of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales , Victoria, Queensland , South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

7. Cocos (Keeling) Islands

A pristine beach on the tiny Cocos (Keeling) Islands)

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are a remote territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean which inspired the setting of Jurassic Park, and today, the group of islands is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Queen arrived here on 5 April for a brief visit during which time she enjoyed a special welcome dance and was presented with model boats.

8. Sri Lanka

Kandy, Sri Lanka (Shutterstock)

The next stop was Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) where the Queen wore her coronation gown to open Parliament in Colombo. During her time in the country, Queen Elizabeth also enjoyed a train ride to Kandy, a tour of the city of Anuradhapura, a visit to Polonnaruwa (where the remains of the royal ancient city can be seen) and the green and hilly city of Nuwara Eliya.

Kazinga National Park was enamed Queen Elizabeth National Park in Her Majesty’s honour (Shutterstock)

After Sri Lanka, the Queen continued her journey to Uganda where her main engagement was opening of the Owen Falls hydro-electric scheme. The Queen didn’t return to the country again until 2007 when she was greeted by thousands of cheering Ugandans that came out and lined the streets. During her time, she toured Kazinga National Park which was later renamed Queen Elizabeth National Park in her honour.

Valletta, Malta (Shutterstock)

The Queen’s first Commonwealth tour may have been the first time Her Majesty visited Malta as Queen, but it was not her first ever time on the island. In fact, she had lived on the Mediterranean island between 1949 to 1951 while Prince Philip was stationed in the the navy. It is believed these are some of the Queen’s happiest years. The couple visited again in 1967, in 2005 and in 2015 which marked the royal couple’s last trip abroad together.

During that Commonwealth visit in 1954, the Queen started in the capital city of Valetta and paid her respects at the War Memorial.

11. Gibraltar

The rock of Gibraltar (Shutterstock)

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were reunited with their two children in Malta and the family sailed together to Gibraltar to conclude the Commonwealth tour on the 10 May. This was the monarch’s first and only visit to the rock of Gibraltar. During her time here, Queen Elizabeth II visited Elliot’s Monument and planted a tree in the Almeda Gardens.

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Cambridge University Library Special Collections

Royal Tour of the Commonwealth 1953-54

Y3091E/179 The Queen receiving a bouquet of flowers from a Fijian princess, Suva, © Royal Commonwealth Society

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee offers an excellent opportunity to celebrate her devoted service as Head of the Commonwealth, as reflected in the Royal Commonwealth Society Collections at Cambridge University Library. In fact, this began well before her reign, for as Princess Elizabeth she had embarked upon a major Commonwealth tour in 1952, on behalf of her father King George VI, who was too ill to undertake it.  Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya when she received news of her father’s death on 6 February 1952 and returned to Britain. 

Within five months of her coronation in June 1953, however, she set out upon the most ambitious Royal Tour yet seen, flying to Bermuda and, thence to Jamaica, boarding S.S. ‘Gothic’ which was to be her base for the remainder of the tour. After visits to Fiji and Tonga, ‘Gothic’ reached New Zealand on 23 December for a stay of over a month. February and March were spent in Australia and the return journey included Ceylon, Aden, Uganda, and Malta, where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were reunited with their two children and whence they sailed via Gibraltar to London on the new Royal Yacht ‘Britannia’. 

Y3011E/49 Camel troop parading for the Queen and Prince Philip, Aden

The Royal Commonwealth Society and its local branches were closely involved in the organisation of the Royal Tour, and its library preserves a fascinating collection of photographs, invitations, programmes and other souvenir items documenting its many events. To view on-line catalogues of the archives please see: 

http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY3011EEE  

http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20320

13 comments

I was on board HMS Sheffield which escorted SS Gothic half way across the Pacific from Jamaica where we handed over escort duties to a RNZN Cruiser. I had recently been in the Royal Navy detatchment which marched through London at the Queen’s coronation, before that I was on board HMS Liverpool in the Mediterranean where the Princess Elizabeth visited frequently to be with Prince Philip and she always came aboard Liverpool for Church services with her sister Princess Margaret.

My Dad, John Marks, was in the Med at that time and Chaplain on the Liverpool. I would be grateful for any recollections, photos or contacts to follow up.

Dear David,

The RCS has a large collection of ephemera relating to the Royal Tour, RCMS 320, which you would be very welcome to consult, https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20320 I’d also suggest getting in touch with the Royal Archives, which may be able to help, https://www.royal.uk/archives

Can I suggest a DVD of this important tour be made which has never been equalled. Including film footage. Regards Tony worsfold

Thank you for your excellent suggestion!

In 1952 the ‘Gothic’ was in Tilbury Docks preparing for a voyage to Australia to bring, the then Princess Elizabeth, back following her world tour, curtailed due the depth of George VI. The vessel was rescheduled to return to Cammell Laird in Birkenhead to have the Royal accommodation returned to its original state. My father was agent for Shaw Savill Line and sailed back on her to Liverpool with my mother and myself.

Greetings Do any of you have photos of the flags that were on the SS Gothic when the royals toured the Pacific? In particular the flag that was flown in the front of the ship. I believe it was called the United tribes flag

Hi Kyla, There may be some delay due to COVID restrictions at the library, but I will have a look and let you know if there are any photos showing the flags on ‘Gothic’. It might be worth asking the Royal Archives too, https://www.royal.uk/archives John

I was a crew member on Gothic for the Royal Tour in 1953/54.

The flag on the bow of Gothic was the Shaw Savill Company flag

My father James Ewing was a crew member on the Gothic for Royal tour, sadly he just passed away on the 7th April 2022.

I was on the deck of the Troopship Fowey as the S.S Gothic returned to Southampton.,awaiting the order to remove berets and give three cheers to Her Majesty. The Fowey was dwarfed by the liner.and as soon as it passed the wash,swayed our ship.At that moment the guy next to me was very sea sick and fell down. I was ordered to join the party that took him to the sick bay.And there he stayed until we arrived at Gibraltar where he was taken ashore. Earlier we had been billeted in the same hut at the Transit Camp when he displayed his Charles Atlas physique by doing countless Press-Ups. When he was taken away on a stretcher,he was a broken man.

Did the Queen visit Kenya on her tour? We are interested in finding a photograph of a friend who presented a bouquet to the Queen in Naivasha some time in the 1950s. Thanking you for your help.

Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya for a planned Royal Tour of the Commonwealth. While there the King died and the tour was canceled. She became Queen at the time the King died. She returned to the UK.

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ArchiveSearch

Commonwealth royal tour, 1953-1954.

• PDF Generating
• Collection Overview
• Collection Organization
• Container Inventory (empty)

Scope and Contents

The principal part of the collection is a set of programmes and guides prepared for the different legs of the Royal Tour. These are supplemented by related correspondence and papers compiled by the Royal Empire Society and others. The collection is in English with the exception of one item in English and Arabic.

• Creation: 1953 - 1954

Conditions Governing Access

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact [email protected]. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Biographical / Historical

On 23 November 1953 Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh left London for a tour of the Commonwealth. The Royal party visited, in order, Bermuda (24-25 November), Jamaica (25-27th), Panama (29-30th), Fiji (17-19 December), Tonga (19-20th), New Zealand (23 December-30 January), Australia (3 February-1 April), Cocos Islands (5th), Ceylon (10th-21st), Aden (27-28th), Uganda (28-30th), Tobruk (1 May), Malta (3-7th) and Gibraltar (10-11th), returning to London on 15 May 1954. The longest part of the tour was spent in Australia, where the party visited New South Wales, 3-13 February, 18 February and 18 March; Tasmania, 20-24 February; Victoria, 24 February-9 March 1954 and 25 March; Queensland, 9-18 March; South Australia, 26 February and 18-26 March; and Western Australia, 26 March-1st April.

2 archive box(es) (2 boxes) : card/paper

1 envelope(s) (1 envelope)

Language of Materials

Additional description, immediate source of acquisition.

The provenance of the collection is unknown.

This collection level description was created by RAS.

Originator(s)

Related names.

• Elizabeth, II, 1926-2022 (Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) (Person)
• Philip, b, 1921 (Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II) (Person)
• Adan (governate)
• Adan (inhabited place)
• Africa (continent)
• Asia (continent)
• Australia (nation)
• Bermuda (dependent state)
• Cocos Islands (dependent state)
• Darnah (province)
• Europe (continent)
• Fiji (nation)
• Gibraltar (dependent state)
• Jamaica (nation)
• Libya (nation)
• Malta (island)
• Malta (nation)
• New Zealand (nation)
• North and Central America (continent)
• Oceania (continent)
• Panama (nation)
• South Yemen (region)
• Sri Lanka (nation)
• Tonga (nation)
• Tubruq (inhabited place)
• Uganda (nation)
• Yemen (nation)

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Repository details.

Part of the Cambridge University Library Repository

Collection organization

Commonwealth Royal Tour, 1953-1954, GBR/0115/RCS/RCMS 320. Cambridge University Library.

Cite Item Description

Commonwealth Royal Tour, 1953-1954, GBR/0115/RCS/RCMS 320. Cambridge University Library. https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/358 Accessed June 18, 2024.

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The Commonwealth

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‘The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace.’ This quote from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas Day broadcast of 1953 encapsulates the values and founding principles of the Commonwealth, and highlights the Queen’s immense understanding of, and belief in, this international institution to which she has been continually committed to since adopting the role of figurehead on 6 February 1952.

Looking back over her reign, it is clear that the Queen’s involvement as Head of the Commonwealth has been vital and inspirational. The Queen’s guidance and wisdom have enabled this institution to grow from a small group of nations to an association of 53 independent countries spanning six continents and over 2 billion people. It is her quiet diplomacy, subtle encouragement and unifying presence over the past 60 years that will undoubtedly afford the Queen a legacy in which the next 60 years of the Commonwealth are shaped by an endurance of the principles of democracy, equality and peace that have thus far commanded a central focus. Aside from her father, King George VI, Her Majesty is the only person to fulfil the role of Head of the Commonwealth.

Despite the fact that the position of Head of the Commonwealth is not enshrined in the Coronation Oath, the Queen’s genuine affection for the countries under her headship and desire for the institution to succeed is demonstrated by her ever-increasing involvement, which has always surpassed her expected duties. The past 60 years have seen the Queen extend her role as figurehead into new areas including symbolic functions such as meeting Commonwealth leaders and opening parliament in a number of member nations.

Through her role as Head of the Commonwealth, the Queen not only promotes unity and increases the profile of the association but also acts as a role model for all kinds of societal actors. While she clearly values her role as Head of the Commonwealth and constitutional monarch she acknowledges that she will perform these roles only as long as the people happily wish her to do so.This is just one of many ways in which she demonstrates and embodies respect for democratic process.

The Queen at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings

On a biennial basis, the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations meet to discuss important issues across the Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The Queen first attended a CHOGM in 1973, in Ottawa, as part of a royal visit to Canada. Her Majesty has attended, or been present in the host country, for every CHOGM since then, although her formal appearances at the meetings only began in 1997. Speaking at the opening ceremony of CHOGM 2011 in Perth, She said of these meetings that: ‘Their importance has always been in precise relationship to their relevance: always being attuned to the issues of the day, and always looking to the future with a sense of vision and practical action to match.’ The Queen’s attendance at these meetings may be seen to reinforce her unifying role in strengthening co-operation among Commonwealth countries; her sense of commitment is clear and exemplified by considering that, despite the disagreement of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Her Majesty attended the 1979 CHOGM in Lusaka, Zambia regardless of security concerns. This was the Queen’s first visit to Zambia and demonstrated her selfless awareness that then President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, was in need of her support. The subsequent summit was a success, with the Queen utilising her renowned diplomacy to perform a conciliatory role.

The Queen and Commonwealth countries

Beginning with her first official Commonwealth tour, which set off in November 1953, the Queen has paid numerous visits to virtually every country in the Commonwealth. This first tour lasted six months, included 13 countries and saw the Queen and Prince Philip travel by plane, car, rail and sea. Many of the countries visited had never before seen their Queen, and thus the trip provided a timely opportunity not only to promote the image and values of the Commonwealth, but also to reiterate Her Majesty’s position as symbolic leader around the world. Since then, the Queen has continued to visit Commonwealth countries across Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Americas and the Caribbean, and Europe.

Often planning her meetings around CHOGMs and the Commonwealth Games, the Queen also manages to find time to greet members of the public and pay her respects to the memories of the many Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives in World Wars I and II. During these visits, through her warmth and support the Queen has seen her relationships with world leaders grow from strength to strength, with many now looking upon her with feelings of friendship as well as respect. Her Majesty has formed an enduring friendship with former South African president Nelson Mandela, with him referring to her as ‘my friend Elizabeth’ and her signing off letters to him with the words ‘Your sincere friend, Elizabeth R’. The continuation of such visits and the network of friendships that they cultivate around the Commonwealth are vital in reiterating the association as a family of nations that holds common interests at heart.

The Queen and her realms

The Commonwealth is also home to all 16 of the Commonwealth realms. Following independence from the UK, these former British colonies have chosen to retain constitutional relationships and the tradition of having the Queen as head of state. Aside from the United Kingdom, there are 15 Commonwealth realms in existence today: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

In her capacity as monarch of all Commonwealth realms, Queen Elizabeth II has made over 80 visits to these countries. Beginning with her maiden official visit to a Commonwealth realm as Queen of New Zealand in 1953, Her Majesty’s visits have stretched the breadth and range of all habitable continents of the world, with her many subsequent official visits including:

• her visits as Queen of Jamaica in 1966, 1975, 1983, 1994 and 2002
• her numerous visits as Queen of Canada from her first visit in 1957 to a score of others in every decade of her reign
• her visit to the small South Pacific country of Tuvalu as Queen of Tuvalu in 1982
• her 1985 grand round trip to the Caribbean as Queen in each of the following sovereign countries: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines
• her most recent visit as Queen of Australia in 2011, which was preceded by many others to the country

Historically, many Commonwealth republics that now have presidents as their head of state did, at one point, have the Queen as their monarch following their independence from the UK. This was reflected in the Queen’s visits over the decades as Queen of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Queen of Sierra Leone, Queen of Trinidad and Tobago, Queen of Malta and as Queen of Mauritius. All these countries are now republics and instead maintain a ceremonial link to the Queen by virtue of their Commonwealth membership.

The Queen cannot always fulfil the role of head of state in each of her realms and thus out of practicality she is represented, constitutionally, by a governor-general in each country. The role of the governor-general is unique to the Commonwealth and involves the carrying out of ceremonial day-to-day duties of head of state on behalf of the Queen. Such duties include the appointment of government ministers, ambassadors and judges on the advice of a prime minister, and giving Royal Assent to legislation. Governors-general are elected or chosen by the country’s parliament, cabinet or prime minister and all formally appointed by the Queen. On the advice of a Commonwealth realm’s government, almost all governors-general are knighted by the Queen as an accepted norm and accorded the title ‘Dame’ when female and ‘Sir’ when male. Canada and Australia are the exceptions to this.

The Queen and Commonwealth Day

At the 1975 CHOGM in Kingston, Jamaica, then Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau suggested that a ‘simultaneously observed Commonwealth Day would focus attention upon the association and its contribution to a harmonious global environment’. Thus, Commonwealth Day was born with the second Monday of March each year now dedicated to a day that acknowledges achievements of the Commonwealth over the past year and reminds its members, and the world, of the principles of democracy, equality and peace that lie at its core. The day is marked by a multifaith observance at Westminster Abbey and a themed message from the Queen in which she expresses her own heartfelt sentiments, rather than taking suggestions from her advisers. In the knowledge that her message is broadcast in all countries and territories of the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Day provides an opportunity for the Queen to demonstrate her commitment and cement her unifying role. Over the years, Commonwealth Day themes incorporated into the Queen’s message have included ‘Talking to One Another’, ‘Music’, ‘Building a Commonwealth of Freedom’, ‘Health and Vitality’ and, most recently, ‘Connecting Cultures’.

The Queen’s involvement in Commonwealth organisations

From her work with Commonwealth organisations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat in organising important events, and her central participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, Queen Elizabeth II plays an essential role in preserving the fabric of unity of the Commonwealth. Her continued commitment to such unity across all founding principles of the Commonwealth is further demonstrated through her involvement in various Commonwealth organisations performing altruistic efforts and fraternal undertakings throughout the 53 nations of this inspiring institution. These organisations include Commonwealth affiliated bodies founded by Royal Charter, for some of which the Queen and members of the Royal Family are patrons or presidents: the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC); Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League (RCEL); the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS); Royal Over Seas League; and Sightsavers (The Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind). The involvement of the Queen and the Royal Family in such bodies helps to raise awareness of, and provide solutions to, the day-to-day challenges faced by Commonwealth citizens in matters such as advancement of agriculture in the poor rural communities in Africa and Asia, respect, inclusion and healthcare for people with disabilities and promotion of creative talent throughout the Commonwealth, regardless of background. In ensuring the preservation of the annual tradition of Commonwealth Day the Queen also works closely with the Council of Commonwealth Societies (CCS). The CCS is an eclectic coalition of over a dozen organisations involved in many fields of Commonwealth society such as education (Association of Commonwealth Universities), media (Commonwealth Broadcasting Association), telecommunications (Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation), civil society capacity-building (Commonwealth Foundation) and governance (Commonwealth Local Government Forum and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association).

The Queen and the Commonwealth Games

The Queen is a great advocate for the role of sport in society and has been a consistent supporter of the Commonwealth Games which, in testimony to the values of the Commonwealth, have often been termed ‘the friendly games’. First held in London in 1911 under the name the ‘Inter-Empire Sports Meeting’, these world-class games are now held once every four years and hosted by different countries across the Commonwealth. Despite having grown in terms of both the number of participating countries and the number of events, the Commonwealth Games have always tried to maintain their ethos of being ‘merrier and less stern’ than the Olympic Games. Over the years there have been both sporting highlights and social controversies; the 1958 Games in Cardiff, Wales, saw the breaking of 10 world records but was also the year of public outcry against the South African team choice, which prioritised race ahead of ability. It was also in 1958 that the tradition of the Queen’s baton relay began; starting at Buckingham Palace, the Queen handed the baton over to a team of relay runners who then carried it to Cardiff. Once it arrived at the location of the Games, the Queen’s message stored within the baton was received and read aloud by the Duke of Edinburgh. The tradition has continued and evolved, with the baton now travelling vast distances; in 2006 it took just over a year to reach the destination in Melbourne after having visited all Commonwealth nations and territories participating in the Games.

The Queen and the Commonwealth armed forces

Queen Elizabeth II holds honorary positions in armed forces of the Commonwealth. In addition to the UK, where she is the Head of the Armed Forces, the Queen and members of the Royal Family hold titular ranks as heads of various regiments in Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the UK territory of Bermuda. Members of British regiments born in Commonwealth countries have distinguished themselves in battle. In 2005 Lance Corporal Johnson Gideon Beharry, born and raised in Grenada, became the first living person in over 30 years to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour in the British and Commonwealth armed forces. The Queen pays tribute by laying wreaths at various war memorials during her official visits to Commonwealth countries, as well as at the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall each Remembrance Day. The Queen is Patron to over 100 armed services charities and organisations including the Air Force Association of Canada, the Partially Blinded Soldiers’ Association of Australia and the Royal Malta Artillery Association.

The future of the Commonwealth

By heeding Her Majesty’s words on Christmas Day 1953, the Commonwealth will continue to bind member nations together in a spirit of friendship and peace.

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The Queen's Commonwealth

The Queen was the Head of the Commonwealth for 70 years. When she inherited the role from her father, King George VI, the organisation consisted of just seven nations - the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). By the end of her reign, the Commonwealth had grown to a body of 56 nations, all but four of which had been former colonies of the British Empire.

In her role as Head of the Commonwealth, the Queen shared the leadership with the Commonwealth Secretary-General and the Commonwealth Chair-in-Office. Her duties included: attending the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), attending the Commonwealth Games, and recording a yearly Commonwealth Day address to the organisation’s 2.5 billion citizens. The Queen attended all but two CHOGM meetings between the inaugural meeting in 1973 until handing over the role to Prince Charles in 2015.

The Commonwealth was created in 1926 - the year of the Queen’s birth. At the Imperial Conference held that year in London, the heads of the Dominions (the self-governing states of the Empire, including Australia, India, and Ireland) produced the Balfour Declaration. The declaration established the principle that all the Dominions held equal status and were not subordinate to the United Kingdom. The term ‘Commonwealth’ was coined to describe this new organisation.

After the Second World War, the British Empire began to break apart, with India declaring independence in 1947. What started as a trickle of independence declarations in the 1950s turned into a flood in the 1960s, marking the end of the Empire and the rapid expansion of the Commonwealth, as Britain’s former colonies applied to join after gaining independence. There are currently only two former members of the Commonwealth - the Republic of Ireland, which left the organisation in 1949, and Zimbabwe, which was suspended in 2002 and left in 2003.

The Commonwealth acts almost as a mini–United Nations, with heads of each of its 56 members meeting every two years to discuss how the countries can strengthen their commitments to free trade, human rights, religious freedom, education, the arts, sport, world peace, international development, and democracy. While there is no formal free trade agreement between the member states, trade between members is often up to 50% higher than with countries outside of the organisation.

As its head for 70 years, the Queen was extremely committed to the Commonwealth and the values it promoted on the world stage. Starting in 1953, just six months after her coronation, the Queen visited all but four Commonwealth countries. Her first official tour took her to Bermuda, Jamaica, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, and Australia. Crowds flocked to see her and her husband. A particular highlight of the tour was her visit to Australia in 1954, where an estimated 75% of the population turned out to see the royal couple.

The Queen and Prince Philip visited India in 1961. It was the first visit by a British monarch since Indian independence in 1947 and marked a turning point in relations between Britain and its former colony.

To mark her Silver Jubilee in 1977, the Queen embarked on a tour of fourteen Commonwealth countries including Western Samoa, Tonga, Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Canada. She travelled 56,000 miles during her tour, but never complained about her gruelling schedule. Indeed, she stressed that she wanted as many people as possible to share in her Jubilee celebrations by having the opportunity to see her in person.

In 1995, the Queen arrived for her first visit to South Africa since 1947 where she had famously pledged to devote her whole life to the service of her country and to the Commonwealth. South Africa had been shunned on the world stage since the introduction of the apartheid regime in 1948, and the Queen’s visit was seen as an important step in the country’s rehabilitation and an endorsement of its new government under Nelson Mandela.

In 2015, the Queen made what turned out to be her final overseas trip when she attended a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on the island of Malta. It was an especially poignant end to nearly 70 years of international travel. The Queen and Prince Philip had spent two years on the island between 1949 and 1951 when Philip was stationed there as a young naval officer. The Queen looked back on her brief stay there as a young wife and mother on the island as one of the happiest times of her life.

The Queen was fiercely committed to the idea and the principles of the Commonwealth. Her commitment and dedication to the organisation is cited as one of the main reasons why it has stayed together through times of great turbulence, growing larger and stronger over the course of her seven decades as its head.

In 1953, the young queen said of the Commonwealth that it “bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace. To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.”

It was a promise she kept.

The Queen of the World

The paradox of Elizabeth II’s reign was that in presiding over a shrinking empire, she became a modern global monarch.

Q ueen Elizabeth II’s longevity alone places her in the pantheon of royal greats. At the time of her death, at Balmoral Castle today, she had served 70 years as Queen—the longest of any sovereign in the English monarchy’s 1,000-year history. But it is not simply her longevity that marks her for greatness, but her ability to stay relevant as the world changed around her.

She was the product of ancestral inheritance but was more popular than any of her prime ministers and remained head of state in countries around the world because of public support. She was in a sense a democratic Queen, a progressive conservative, an aristocratic multiculturalist.

Queen Elizabeth was a constitutional monarch, not a political leader with real powers, and one who was required to serve an ever-changing set of realms, peoples, institutions, and ideas that were no longer as obviously compatible as they had been when she ascended to the throne. The Queen’s great achievement was to honor the commitment she made to an imperial nation and its empire as a princess even as it became a multiethnic state and a Commonwealth.

When the Queen devoted her whole life to the service of Britain’s “great imperial family,” she meant it and honored it. And she did so in a way that brought more harmony than discord. Even as her nation’s influence shrank, the world embraced her.

1. The Globa l Introduction

In October 1940, a teenage Princess Elizabeth gave the first of what would be a lifetime of public speeches designed to move, embolden, and steady the nerves of an imperiled empire. At the time, the British empire was standing alone against Nazi Germany: France had been crushed, the Soviet Union had made a deal with Hitler, and the United States remained aloof from World War II. Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, had traveled with their parents to record a message for the BBC that would be broadcast to “the children of the empire,” as well as children in the U.S.

The recording offers a glimpse of a time and place that is gone, as well as the first look at this representative of a new age, the age of Elizabeth. Hers would be an age not of world war and European empires, but of imperial retreat and American expansion; of the Cold War and the apparent end of history; of nationalism and globalization; of the space race and the internet.

For the 14-year-old princess, none of this was visible that day in 1940. The world that existed then faced the prospect of a Nazi-dominated Europe. Ostensibly, her message was to the children evacuated to the British countryside and to the Greater Britain that then existed beyond the seas, to evade German aerial bombardment of cities. In her clipped but childish tones, the young Elizabeth marvels at the lives being led in these far-flung corners of the world. “All the new sights you must be seeing, and the adventures you must be having,” she says , as if reading an exciting bedtime story. But then she turns to the central thrust of the message: a plea. “I am sure that you, too, are often thinking of the Old Country. I know you won’t forget us.”

Read: How The Crown , and its clothes, transform power

Here was the vulnerability at the core of Princess Elizabeth’s address. The Old Country was in trouble and needed help. Princess Elizabeth had been enlisted to ask for it, to do her duty—a task she would perform for decades to come.

During her reign, she weathered an array of crises, from her clashes with Margaret Thatcher to her mishandling of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. In doing so, she became the focus of something akin to a secular religion, the royalist historian David Starkey has noted, a form of “ British Shintoism ,” according to others such as Philip Murphy, a professor of British and Commonwealth history at the University of London.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926, as a princess to not simply a king but an emperor. She became Queen to a multitude of realms. A child of empire, European supremacy, and the old order—even the old faith, Anglican Christianity—she came to see it as her solemn duty to represent all the peoples and religions of the Commonwealth.

This duty created friction during her reign, but it made her different from any other European monarch and, paradoxically, kept her modern. A great irony of Queen Elizabeth II is that the most penetrating criticism of her reign came not from the republican left but from the nationalist right, parts of which saw past her image of continuity and tradition to the deep change that her rule actually represented.

On Princess Elizabeth’s 21st birthday, she delivered a radio broadcast that would define her life. Addressing all “the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire,” and specifically “the youth of the British family of nations,” she asked for their permission to speak as their representative. Delivered from Cape Town, South Africa, this was not a message to England, or Britain, or even the United Kingdom, but to the already fading empire.

The message was designed to inspire, but also to begin a transition. The princess declared that just as England had saved Europe from Napoleonic domination in the 19th century, the British empire had saved the world from Hitler in the 20th. The task now before the empire was just as pressing, she said: It needed to save itself.

“If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart,” Elizabeth said, “we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing.” In doing so, the princess, with a politician’s sleight of hand, had endowed a relatively new construct, the British Commonwealth, with the myth of ancient roots. “I declare before you all,” she continued, “that my whole life whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

In 1947, such a commitment could still be made without embarrassment. Formally, India, the jewel in the British imperial crown, was not yet independent, though the legal process was under way and would become reality within months. The last vestiges of royal connection to Ireland had similarly not yet been cut. Soon, however, this apparently “ancient” family would undergo a revolution.

Read: The first Brexit was theological

In the early hours of February 6, 1952, King George VI, Elizabeth’s father, died in his sleep. She was in Kenya when she learned that she had become Queen. Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcast the news, describing the Crown as “the magic link, which unites our loosely bound but strongly interwoven commonwealth of nations.” And yet, just five years after Elizabeth’s Cape Town address, the world had already changed to such an extent that to speak of a great imperial family, as Elizabeth had done, was no longer appropriate. By 1952, for example, India was not only independent, but a republic. This new Commonwealth comprised free and equal countries that voluntarily accepted Elizabeth as their symbolic head—a role with no real power for an organization with no real status.

She was Queen, then, but of what?

Her father had been crowned George VI of “Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas,” as well as “Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India.” By the time the young Elizabeth was crowned, the title “Emperor of India” was obsolete. Yet even this did not go far enough. She was proclaimed Queen Elizabeth II, “Queen of this Realm and of all Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”

Although few paid much attention to the changes at the time, the new terminology caught the eye of one of the most influential and controversial British politicians of the postwar era, Enoch Powell. He had spotted that the new declaration contained within it imperial retreat and was dismayed. But this was not the real source of his fury—it was that Britain had been subsumed into a multinational structure that it no longer led. In Britain, Elizabeth would be “Queen of the United Kingdom,” but elsewhere she would have different titles, granted by different countries: Queen of Australia in Australia, Queen of Canada in Canada, and so forth.

What Powell had seen was that this marked a sea change not only for the Queen, but for Britain itself. What had been a single empire with a single sovereign was no longer—nor was it even a British Commonwealth. In its place was simply a Commonwealth with different peoples, each equal to the others, including that of the Old Country, whether or not they took the Queen as their monarch.

In 1947, Princess Elizabeth had declared that she would give her whole life to the service of Britain’s great imperial family. When she became Queen, it was no longer clear what that really meant.

3. The Revolution

The change to the Queen’s title was, in fact, just another logical step down a road already taken. In 1948, Parliament had passed legislation revolutionizing the nature of British nationality itself, creating several separate citizenships within the empire. What had been a Greater Britain around the world, singular and indivisible, loyal to the King and empire, was no more. It had shrunk, leaving space for Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand nationalisms to flourish as separate identities, just as a Scotsman today can also be British.

The Queen’s title, therefore, was a sign of the coming age, a beacon in the fog of the 1950s lighting the way to the postimperial world that exists today.

For the ordinary Brit at home, glued to the television to watch the Queen’s coronation, much of this passed unnoticed. As Vernon Bogdanor writes in The Monarchy and the Constitution , the feelings of attachment to Britain in its former dominions, such as New Zealand and Canada, were taken for granted. In 1953, Australia’s prime minister, R. G. Menzies, spoke of the Queen passing on “a crown that will always be the sign and proof that, wherever we may be in the world, we are one people.” Menzies had in 1948 even said that “the boundaries of Britain do not lie on the Kentish Coast, they are to be found at Cape York and Invercargill.”

From the December 1943 issue: The education of a queen

Indeed, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, there seemed little reason to doubt the strength of this great global nation. The day before, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary had conquered Mount Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, planting the Union Jack on its peak. Welcoming the news, New Zealand’s prime minister declared how proud he was that an Englishman had been the first to climb the world’s highest mountain. During the Queen’s first royal tour of the Commonwealth, in 1953–54, she visited 13 countries, including Bermuda, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Australia, and New Zealand, covering more than 40,000 miles in six months. In Australia, 6–7 million people turned out to see her, amounting to about 75 percent of the country’s population.

Only now is it possible to see the slow unwinding of this Greater British identity during the age of Elizabeth. An early glimpse came during her first visit to India and Pakistan as Queen, in 1961. Despite being head of the Commonwealth, of which India was a member, the Queen was invited only in her capacity as Queen of the United Kingdom. To do otherwise might have implied “the existence in some degree of authority residing in Her Majesty over the Republic of India,” Philip Murphy points out in Monarchy and the End of Empire . When the Commonwealth bumped up against the hard reality of Britain’s place in the postimperial world, there was no question that the Commonwealth had to stand aside.

It was scarcely appreciated then, but the Queen’s coronation—that great triumph of Britishness at the peak of its powers—was what signified the retreat. A moment of deep continuity for the Old Country was actually a moment of quiet revolution, turning Britain inward and setting a course that it would travel for the rest of her reign, culminating in a threat to the very future of Britain by the time of her death, with support for secession growing in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Britons did not know it at the time of her ascent, but they were once again an island people. Only their Queen was global.

4. The Reign

In retrospect, it was absurd to think that the Queen could be both British and global, sharing herself equally among her various realms. How can one person be Queen of the United Kingdom one moment and Queen of Australia the next, as well as head of a Commonwealth? In time, the practical reality revealed itself—the Queen was primarily Queen of the United Kingdom.

From 1952 to her death, she would meet 13 of the 14 U.S. presidents elected in that time (Lyndon B. Johnson being the exception). She did so as Britain’s head of state—in effect, Queen of the Old Country hiding in imperial clothes, representing a state that, in U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s infamous put-down , had lost an empire but not yet found a role.

Read: The Queen Mother’s odd letters

Through the 1960s and early ’70s, following Britain’s humiliation at Suez , the country sought to tilt away from the empire toward its special relationship with the United States and membership in the new European Community. Globally, this shift in priorities meant sacrificing imperial power for imagined influence over the new empire that had replaced Britain: the United States. In Europe, it meant sacrificing trade with the Commonwealth for markets on its doorstep. For many in Britain, this was a hard choice, given support for the old imperial connections, particularly to the Greater British dominions (or, more cynically, to the white Commonwealth) of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Yet successive British governments knew which direction they wanted to go in. In Africa, for example, Britain, unlike France, encouraged its former colonies not only to become independent, but to become republics . The loss of the empire was seen as a price worth paying for greater influence, and the Queen supported recognition of African nationalism. In 1960, when British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan remarked in a speech from South Africa that the “wind of change is blowing through this continent,” signaling the inevitability of decolonization, Elizabeth “took the unusual step of indicating her personal approval of Macmillan’s words,” Murphy records. Shortly after the speech, Macmillan received a telegram with a message from London that “the Queen was very interested and much impressed by the Prime Minister’s speech.” Four years later, the process of decolonization in East, West, and Central Africa was largely complete.

However, tensions between her role as global Queen and national Queen were inevitable—and duly came. Because the Queen was atop neither an empire nor an international body with a constitution like, say, the European Union, her title as head of the Commonwealth was unclear, unwritten, and, crucially, unlinked to her position as head of state in Britain or anywhere else. What happened if her two roles clashed?

In 1952, when the British dominions were part of an imagined Greater Britain or—outside the Indian subcontinent—the subjects of a still-vast empire, there was little scope for such a clash. By the 1960s, as the empire continued to be swept away, there was a very real prospect of friction.

The danger, as Powell had pointed out, was that in creating the fiction of the Commonwealth, the Queen risked losing the support of her people at home by appearing to have split loyalties. As the 1960s turned into the ’70s and ’80s, this prophecy seemed to be coming true. In an article in 1964, Powell spoke of the resentment of British people seeing their sovereign “playing an alien part as one of the characters in the Commonwealth charade.” The imperial monarchy, to which the Queen had devoted her life, appeared to be threatening the national monarchy.

Tensions really began to be felt when the Conservative Party in Britain elected as its leader a Powellite in the form of Margaret Thatcher, who seemed to have little time for the Commonwealth and even less sympathy for the policies of some of its more radical members. According to Murphy’s Monarchy and the End of Empire , Thatcher and her closest advisers joked that the acronym CHOGM—for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting—stood for “Compulsory Hand-Outs for Greedy Mendicants.”

In the Queen’s 1983 Christmas message, four years after Thatcher came to power, she appeared to champion the policies of India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, over those of her own government, adding that despite the progress that had been made on the subcontinent, “the greatest problem in the world today remains the gap between rich and poor countries, and we shall not begin to close this gap until we hear less about nationalism and more about interdependence.”

From the magazine: How to write about royalty

This was not a message from the Thatcherite script and its Cold War mentality. Powell said that the intervention suggested the Queen had “the interests and affairs of other countries in other continents as much, or more, at heart than those of her own people.”

Another clash between the global and national Queen came in 1986, when a number of countries were threatening to boycott the Commonwealth Games in protest of Thatcher’s opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Britain had been isolated on the issue, with the Queen notably avoiding taking Britain’s side. Sonny Ramphal, the Guyanese Commonwealth secretary-general, later recalled that “if the Queen hadn’t been there we might have gone on the rocks.”

Later that year, a series of articles began to appear in the British press revealing a rift between the Queen and her prime minister over the Commonwealth. A profile of Prince Charles in The Economist suggested that his views were considerably to the left of Thatcher’s. An article in the newspaper Today then suggested that the Queen was worried the division over sanctions could break up the Commonwealth, and had even urged Thatcher to change her views. Similar pieces appeared in The Times and The Daily Telegraph . Finally, The Sunday Times led its front page with the headline “Queen Dismayed by ‘Uncaring’ Thatcher,” calling her “The African Queen.”

Such revelations, which came close to constitutional-crisis territory, centered on the Queen’s split loyalties to Commonwealth and nation. Powell had warned that this split would make her look more concerned for the Commonwealth than for Britain. The Queen had become a champion of global multiculturalism at home and abroad. Almost by accident, she had become modern.

5. The Legacy

In some senses, Queen Elizabeth II leaves an ambiguous legacy. She stands above almost all of Britain’s British monarchs, but was one who oversaw a drastic shrinkage in the monarchy’s power, prestige, and influence. Such a legacy, however, does not do the Queen justice.

At the funeral of the former Israeli leader Shimon Peres in 2016, then–U.S. President Barack Obama likened him to some of the “other giants of the 20th century.” Obama, whose father was a Kenyan government official born in what was then part of the British empire, chose to name two figures: Nelson Mandela and Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen’s role in the Commonwealth might have been a device to hide the reality of the British empire’s decline, but she did not believe so. The irony is that in doing her duty to this imperial shadow in the same way she did her duty to Britain, she was better able to symbolize a modern, multicultural Britain and the world of the 21st century than logic might suggest was possible for an aristocratic European princess. Indeed, she is more popular in many African Commonwealth countries today than the former white dominions, which may soon choose to become republics and long ago stopped seeing themselves as British.

Yet her death has given rise to a sense of unease. Her eldest son, Charles, seems an unlikely figure for the British Shintoism that built up around his mother. Whatever his merits, such has been the nature of his life, lived in the glare of the modern world—of Diana and Camilla , The Crown and the tabloids—that it looks impossible to re-create the kind of worship that attached itself to the Queen.

Read: What Meghan Markle means for the royal family

Generations have known nothing but the Queen. She became almost above reproach, an icon on a wall, a symbol. Charles, by contrast, is human and flawed and distinctly reproachable. With the Queen goes the monarchy’s protective shield. Can the next generation escape the tarnish of racism leveled by Harry and Meghan, or the scandals of Prince Andrew?

Beyond Britain, will Australia and New Zealand and Canada accept Charles as their King, as they did Elizabeth in 1952? And what of the Queen’s other great love, the Commonwealth? It has already agreed to let Charles inherit his mother’s leadership. But how long can such an institution really survive? In an era of Black Lives Matter and imperial guilt, can an African child once again be pictured kneeling before some distant European monarch, as happened for the Queen’s diamond jubilee, in 2012?

None of these questions is answerable for now. Much rests on Charles himself. Can he show the lifelong restraint of his mother, the dignity and duty, the reserve and careful calculation? Will events blow him off course?

When King George VI died, Winston Churchill paid tribute to him in the House of Commons, before turning to his new Queen. “So far I have spoken of the past, but with the new reign we must all feel our contact with the future,” the prime minister said. “She comes to the throne at a time when a tormented mankind stands uncertainly poised between world catastrophe and a golden age.” For Churchill, such a golden age was possible only with “a true and lasting peace.” He then concluded: “Let us hope and pray that the accession to our ancient throne of Queen Elizabeth II may be the signal for such a brightening salvation of the human scene.”

Looking back on her reign, it is clear that the age of Elizabeth really was golden: an age of extraordinary prosperity, European peace, human rights, and the collapse of Soviet tyranny. Queen Elizabeth II— the Queen—was one of the great symbols of that age, though not a creator of it, a servant rather than a master. But if her legacy is anything, it is that symbols and service matter, even as what they symbolize and serve bend and bow to meet the new reality.

Museum of New Zealand

Te Papa Tongarewa

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Queen Elizabeth II – Her coronation and first visit to New Zealand in 1953

New Zealanders celebrated two royal events in 1953. In the middle of the year, their new monarch Elizabeth II was crowned; six months later she came to Aotearoa New Zealand in person.

A royal year

Many souvenirs were made to mark these happy occasions, some were unique and hand-made, others were mass-produced, but all were mementos of the beginning of what was called ‘the new Elizabethan age’.

In June, Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan, and became the Head of the Commonwealth.

The coronation on 2 June was especially memorable for New Zealanders, as it coincided with news of Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenza Norgay reaching the summit of Mt Everest. The Acting Prime Minster of New Zealand described the conquest as ‘a most fitting gift for her Majesty’s Coronation’.

Touring New Zealand

At the end of December 1953, Queen Elizabeth arrived in New Zealand. She and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, stayed for almost six weeks, travelling through Aotearoa New Zealand as part of a six-month tour of the Commonwealth.

Their itinerary took the couple to 46 towns and cities. This was the first time a reigning monarch of New Zealand had visited – the previous five royal visits had been made by brothers or sons of monarchs.

Crowds flocked to see them. It is estimated that almost three out of every four New Zealanders turned out to catch a glimpse of their new Queen.

This photograph shows spectators watching Queen Elizabeth II’s cavalcade driving through the Basin Reserve in Wellington. It was taken on the last day of the Queen’s stay in the capital, before she and the Duke of Edinburgh flew to the South Island.  Queen's visit, December 1953-January 1954 ... , 16 January 1954, by Leslie Adkin. Te Papa (A.008487)

Royal visit badge , maker unknown, about 1953. Gift of the Guard family, 1993. Te Papa (GH004728)

This bottle top is from a collection of about 250 bottle tops collated by Toby Stevenson when he was aged 7–11 years old, between 1965–1969. Toby recalls his interest was sparked by two Queen Elizabeth II coronation bottle tops that had been kept by his grandmother. She gave them to him and he proceeded to collect bottle tops wherever he could.  Bottle top , about 1954, maker unknown. Gift of Toby Stevenson, 2011. Te Papa (GH021674/1)

This scrapbook was compiled by 10-year-old Cathryn Riley for the Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II to New Zealand in 1953-54. Cathryn was invited to see the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at a special Children's Function at Athletic Park on 12 January 1954. She kept this detailed scrapbook with tickets, newspaper cuttings and other ephemera from the Royal Visit.

Scrapbook, 'The Coronation Royal Visit' , Cathryn Riley; compiler; 1953-1954; New Zealand. Gift of Cathryn Riley, 2014. Te Papa (GH024283)

This badge was created to commemorate the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to New Zealand in 1953-54, and was worn by a young boy who saw her on tour in Devonport, Auckland. Royal Tour badge , 1953, New Zealand, maker unknown. Gift of Tony Mackle, 2011. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (GH021362)

Imperial links

At the time, the tour celebrated and confirmed the ongoing importance of British culture and tradition to New Zealanders. People waved Union Jacks, not the New Zealand flag. Red, white, and blue floral displays were the order of the day.

Celebrating HM The Queen's Platinum Jubilee and 70 years of service to the Commonwealth

This week, Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee will be celebrated across the Commonwealth and the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth family gives thanks to HM The Queen and Head of the Commonwealth, for her 70 years of service to the people of the Commonwealth.

This year Her Majesty The Queen became the first British Monarch in history to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. From 2-5 June, 2022 events are taking place across the United Kingdom for an extended bank holiday weekend to reflect on HM The Queen's unprecedented anniversary.

Jubilee events

In the United Kingdom there will be four days of public and community celebrations include over 2,000 street parties  as well as  national events .

At 11am BST on June 2, HM The Queen’s Birthday Parade will be marked with the 'Trooping the Colour' – a display of music and military pageantry on Horse Guards Parade, London.

Across the Commonwealth, at 9pm BST on June 2,  The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons will be lit. Official lighting of the beacons will begin during a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London. Following this, Community Beacons will light up across the United Kingdom, as well as Commonwealth Beacons in all 54 capital cities of the Commonwealth.

On June 3, a Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen’s reign will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, which will be attended by Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Patricia Scotland QC.

Learn more about the Platinum Jubilee weekend events

70 years of service to the Commonwealth

Join us in celebrating Her Majesty The Queen's 70 years of service to the Commonwealth in our picture gallery.

Her Majesty The Queen and Prince Philip

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on 2 June, 1953 in Westminster Abbey, London, United Kingdom. Her Majesty was the thirty-ninth Sovereign to be crowned at Westminster Abbey. After the Coronation, HM The Queen and Prince Philip waved to the crowds from Buckingham Palace.

Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) on her 21st birthday

Before her accession and to mark her 21st birthday, Her Majesty made a BBC broadcast to the Empire during the Royal Tour of South Africa on 21 April, 1947, during which she dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth.

HM Queen Elizabeth II with Commonwealth leaders

Commonwealth Prime Ministers Meeting in London, United Kingdom, 3-9 June, 1953

Her Majesty The Queen with Commonwealth Heads of Government

Commonwealth Prime Ministers Meeting, London, United Kingdom

Commonwealth Prime Ministers Meeting, London, United Kingdom 

Her Majesty The Queen and former Secretary-General Sir Arnold Smith

Marlborough House, London, United Kingdom

HM The Queen greets local schoolchildren

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

HM The Queen and Chief Emeka Anyaoku

Commonwealth Day service, Westminster Abbey, London, United Kingdom

Nigerian artist, Chine Roy, paints a portrait of HM The Queen to celebrate her Golden Jubilee 

HM The Queen greets High Commissioners

Commonwealth Day Reception, London, United Kingdom

HM The Queen with Commonwealth Day entertainers

Commonwealth Day reception, Sydney, Australia

HM The Queen at an event during Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

Kampala, Uganda​

HM The Queen delivers opening speech at CHOGM

Trinidad and Tobago

HM The Queen with former Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma

Commonwealth Day Reception, London, United Kingdom

HM The Queen and The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth

Opening​ The Commonwealth Hub, London​, United Kingdom

HM The Queen greeting Commonwealth Youth Award winners

Commonwealth Day reception at​ Marlborough House, London, United Kingdom

Her Majesty The Queen and Heads of Government

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London​, United Kingdom

The Commonwealth family celebrates 70 years of service from Her Majesty The Queen, ​Head of the Commonwealth this special Platinum Jubilee year

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The Queen has described the ‘beloved’ countries of the Commonwealth as ‘stirring examples of courage, commitment and selfless dedication’.

The monarch, who was the head of the Commonwealth, visited every single member – except for Cameroon and Rwanda – between 1952 and 2015, which is the last time she made an overseas trip.

During that same time period, Her Majesty has only ever missed two Commonwealth heads of government meetings.

The Commonwealth used to be an organisation linking all the British Empire colonies.

But as more nations gained their independence, the role of the Commonwealth changed and morphed into what is now a group of countries with a shared history who work together on trade, the environment and human rights.

The grouping has become fairly complex over the decades, with historians describing it as ‘a loose association of states whose relationship with Britain and each other often-defied definition’.

So what has the Commonwealth’s journey been, what exactly is it now, what role has the Queen played and what will happen to it now that the Queen is dead?

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The history of the Commonwealth

In the late 19 th century, the British Empire covered around a fifth of the world’s land surface.

Canada was one of the first countries to start exploring how it could rule itself – mainly so it could independently trade with the US and develop its own defence forces.

Britain did not want to risk a revolution and agreed to make Canada a dominion in 1867. This meant Canada governed itself but only subject to British oversight and the monarch could veto laws and deals.

Other nations, including New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, soon followed suit.

But things changed after World War I, when countries who had fought for Britain became more focused on independence.

Nations gradually decided they would all act in the Commonwealth as equal members in 1926, but they all agreed to continue pledging ‘allegiance to the Crown’. This was formalised when leaders signed the Statute of Westminster in 1931.

But India refused to sign – the country had been convinced by the independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and they wanted to completely dissociate from colonial rule.

India eventually broke free from British rule in 1947.

Essentially, the Commonwealth was a way for Britain to hold onto some of this power after nations gained their independence.

This changed when India asked to re-join the Commonwealth two years later – but on the condition they would be ‘free and equal members’.

India wanted the Commonwealth’s diplomatic and economic benefits but did not want to have to swear allegiance to King George VI.

In 1949, Pakistan and Sri Lanka joined India in demanding the same ‘free and equal’ status.

This set the ball rolling for what is now the status quo – where membership is based on voluntary cooperation and all parties are seen as equals.

Now, the Commonwealth is made up of 54 countries where all but 16 of them are completely independent and self-governed.

The 16 which still recognise the monarchy as their head are called Commonwealth realms – where the Queen was represented by de facto leaders called governor-generals.

The Commonwealth has grown into a platform to improve human rights around the world, by facilitating dialogue and development programmes between members.

For example, the organisation’s opposition of apartheid pushed South Africa to withdraw in 1961 – only re-joining again in 1994, after Nelson Mandela became the country’s first democratically-elected president.

But the Commonwealth has also faced criticism for not taking more direct action on human rights.

Indeed, former prime minister Margaret Thatcher opposed putting harsher sanctions on South Africa during apartheid and many felt the organisation did not push back enough.

Currently more than half of the world’s countries where same-sex marriage is criminalised – 36 out of 69 – belong to the Commonwealth .

These laws were originally put in place during colonial eras and many nations have not reformed them.

Activists have long been campaigning for more pressure to be put on Commonwealth members to adhere to the anti-discrimination values each nation will have signed up to.

The Queen’s role in the Commonwealth

The British monarch is not automatically the head of the Commonwealth but the Queen did succeed her father, King George VI.

Nations decided in 2018 that King Charles III would take over from his mother so he is now the head of state for 14 Commonwealth realms following her death.

The head of the Commonwealth’s role is mainly ceremonial but it is supposed to help unite members together.

But historians have credited the Queen with making an effort to increase the impact of the head’s function in the Commonwealth.

It has not been officially confirmed but Her Majesty was reportedly very worried about division within the Commonwealth if the UK did not take a harsher stance against apartheid South Africa.

The Commonwealth’s secretary-general, Patricia Scotland KC, said: ‘It is with the greatest sorrow and sadness that we mourn the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. After a long life of faith, duty and service, a great light has gone out.

‘Her Majesty was an extraordinary person, who lived an extraordinary life: a constant presence and example for each of us, guiding and serving us all for as long as any of us can remember.

‘Throughout her reign, and seven decades of extraordinary change and challenge, Her Majesty was the epitome of duty, stability, wisdom and grace.

‘Her Majesty loved the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth loved her.’

What is next for the Commonwealth?

The group seems to be constantly changing, especially as decolonial movements gain more and more traction all over the world.

Barbados removed the Queen as its head of state, finally ending ties with the country that legalised slavery on the island in 1661 on November 30 last year.

Barbados followed several other Caribbean nations who have dispensed with the Queen as their head of state, with Guyana becoming a republic in 1970, followed by Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, and Dominica two years later.

Eyes are now looking to Jamaica where prime minister Andrew Holness has said an elected head of state is a priority for his government.

Although the Royal Family has made an effort to maintain good relations with their former colonies, not everyone thinks a friendly relationship is appropriate without reparations for slavery.

King Charles visited Barbados after the country became a republic but some activists thought it was ‘an insult’.

David Denny, from campaign group Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, told the Mirror: ‘The Royal Family benefited from slavery in Barbados. I’m angry.’

He added: ‘It’s not just about money, it’s about an apology and help. Reparations are needed to transform our society.’

That said, many nations seem happy to remain in the Commonwealth – albeit as independent republics – for its benefits and shared history.

So much so that Mozambique and Rwanda, countries which had nothing to do with the British Empire, voluntarily joined the organisation in 1995.

The Queen previously said: ‘If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing – more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world – than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers.’

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Australian states vying to host King Charles and Queen Camilla during visit

States and territories are vying to host King Charles III and Queen Camilla during their expected visit in October, as the federal government works with palace officials to put the final touches on the royal couple's itinerary.

Tourism authorities say past royal trips, which have resulted in images of Australian landmarks being beamed around the world, have prompted an influx of bookings and tens of millions in visitor spending.

Offers ranging from luxury tropical island stays, exclusive wildlife encounters, wine tours and opera performances have been put forward by the country's premiers at the request of the federal government.

Giselle Bastin, a Flinders University expert on the British royal family, said it was unlikely the royal couple would visit every state and territory due to the king's ongoing treatment for cancer.

"The tours have become much shorter since the 50s," she said, adding that she expected the royal couple would do a six-day tour with about three appearances a day.

"While he's very keen on all the states and territories … it'll be whichever state has put in the best case for why they need to be visited."

She is also convinced King Charles and Queen Camilla will enjoy the same rock-star reception experienced by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018, and Prince William and his wife Catherine four years earlier.

"Even though the Sussexes and the then-Cambridges had enormous media pull because of their youth and celebrity status, I think King Charles comes with that extra fairy dust of kingship," Dr Bastin said.

"The sovereign is a big deal for many Australians still."

So, what's on offer?

State and territory leaders were asked to develop itineraries aligned with two main themes — King Charles's first visit to Australia as sovereign and his interest in climate and sustainability.

Queensland's proposed royal itinerary includes a visit to Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, a trip to the Gold Coast and then north to Cairns, where the king would meet those impacted by January's devastating flooding event in the wake of Cyclone Jasper.

The couple would also travel to Lizard Island, an hour's flight north of the tropical city, where they have been offered the use of a luxury home and cottage — owned by Racing Queensland chairman Steven Wilson.

It is currently advertised at $30,000 a night, but the Queensland government said it would not cover the cost of accommodation.

Queensland's Tourism Minister Michael Healy said the king was no stranger to that part of the world — he holidayed on the picturesque Great Barrier Reef island during an unofficial trip in 1966 when he was aged 17.

"Others states and territories may be in a bidding war but Queensland is the obvious choice as the jewel in the crown of any royal visit," Mr Healy said.

"It also fits with his personal interests in disaster recovery and the climate as our region recovers from the devastating flooding impacts of post-Cyclone Jasper and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef."

Ms Bastin said it would be "very hard" for the royal household to pass up Queensland.

"It seems to cover all the bases," she said.

"It would suit the king's personal agenda in that it's about the environment, sustainability … and the destruction of the natural environment — that is so much in his interest."

Western Australia's itinerary includes a visit to the WA Museum Boola Bardip, five renovated heritage buildings in the heart of Perth, and a walk along the Matagarup Bridge — a soaring pedestrian bridge.

The royal couple would also visit Rottnest Island, one of the state's most popular tourist destinations, for a Quokka spotting session.

"We have put forward a number of unique experiences for the king and queen to consider which showcase our state's incredible biodiversity, rich history and cultural offerings," a Western Australia government spokeswoman said.

"The UK is a priority tourism market for WA, with 111,000 visitors from the United Kingdom visiting in the year ending September 2023, injecting around $227 million into the state's economy."

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said a royal visit would not be complete without a trip to Sydney, the most "beautiful city on Earth".

The tour would include a visit to the Opera House, Bondi Beach and Harbour Bridge.

"I don't think you could really come to Australia and convince people back home that you've come to the country without coming to New South Wales, in particular Sydney," Mr Minns said.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he wanted King Charles to see "what it means to be a Tasmanian".

"Whether it be our cool climate wines, unique heritage, reputation as a renewable energy powerhouse or craftsmanship, we hope to have the opportunity to show King Charles what makes Tasmania the best place to live, work and raise a family," he said.

Royal visits can generate millions but come at cost to taxpayers

Tourism experts say royal visits often result in a flurry of bookings and enquiries from visitors.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to Australia in 2014 saw stunning photographs of some of Australia's most famed landmarks — including Uluru in the Northern Territory – showcased around the world.

Tourism Australia reported a 125 per cent increase in visitors from Great Britain to its website on the day of the couple's Uluru visit.

Daniel Gschwind from the Griffith Institute for Tourism said it was advertising that money could not buy.

"The king is one of the most famous people on the planet and he draws attention to the places he sees and visits," he said.

"The king will be travelling with hundreds of media representatives and it will certainly draw attention to the many attractions we do have."

Security and transport is typically paid for by the federal government, states and territories, but the royals pay for their accommodation.

But republicans say the cost of the tour should be footed entirely by the royal family.

Australian Republic Movement chief executive officer Isaac Jeffrey said the cost of royal visits often ran "into the millions".

"This gentleman from the other side of the world lives 17,000km away … He's got a $37 billion property portfolio and he makes hundreds of millions of pounds every year," he said.

"He could pay his own way. Australians are suffering at the moment from a cost-of-living crisis and we don't think that we should be footing the bill for rich international celebrities who only come to visit us every 10 years or so, for a couple of days."

Mr Jeffrey said he would like to see the king and queen venture beyond the capital cities.

"I think it'd be great to see the king and queen of Australia visiting regional Australia," Mr Jeffrey said.

"He could check out some of the big things — the Big Prawn in Ballina or the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour."

The king is yet to formally announce the tour, which would coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa in October.

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King and queen of the Netherlands pay tribute to MLK during visit to Atlanta

The king and queen of the Netherlands have begun a four-day tour of the U.S. in Atlanta

ATLANTA -- The king and queen of the Netherlands began a four-day tour of the U.S. on Monday in Atlanta, where they paid tribute to the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and learned about the history of the church where he served as pastor.

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima were also scheduled to visit a music studio in the city that is a hub for hip hop artists.

The visit — and its focus on Black cultural sites — comes less than a year after the king apologized for his country’s role in slavery and asked for forgiveness during a historic and emotional speech in Amsterdam.

At the King Center, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Bernice King, greeted the king and queen and walked with them to a marble crypt containing the remains of her father and mother, Coretta Scott King, where the couple lay a wreath. Civil rights leader and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young also attended the event.

Willem-Alexander called the visit “deeply moving” for the couple and said the “drive for emancipation among people of color” was a story of “pain and anger, but also one of pride, solidarity and the steadfast belief in peace and reconciliation.”

“In the Netherlands, too, the fight against discrimination and racism continues to command our full attention," he said, reading from prepared remarks. "Martin Luther King inspires us never to give up. His voice continues to resonate even across the Atlantic.”

The couple later met with Black students at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where they learned about the church's role in the Civil Rights Movement and the fight for racial justice. On Tuesday, they are scheduled to visit Savannah State University, the oldest public historically Black college or university in Georgia.

The trip also has an economic motive. In 2023, total trade between Georgia and the Netherlands was $2.9 billion, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

The king and queen met earlier Monday with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp at the state Capitol, where they and a delegation of Dutch business leaders planned to discuss economic cooperation.

They were scheduled to be on hand later for the opening of a new cold storage facility by Dutch company NewCold.

On Tuesday, they plan to visit the Port of Savannah. The trip concludes with a visit to New York on Wednesday and Thursday.

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New York Today

A royal visit to the city that was once called new amsterdam.

Among other stops in New York, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands will tour an exhibit focused on 400 years of Dutch history.

By James Barron

Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll get details of a royal visit to New York City. We’ll also find out what Mayor Eric Adams said when asked about pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

They did not arrive in the United States the way many couples do — the husband, who has a pilot’s license, was in the cockpit of the Boeing 737 jet, serving as the co-pilot for at least part of the flight from Europe.

Still, on their outing in New York City today, the pair, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, will do what many tourists do. They will stroll along the High Line and go to a museum.

But they said the trip had a purpose — emphasizing ties between the Netherlands and the United States and strengthening economic connections. The most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the Netherlands ranked third in direct investment in the United States with $617.1 billion at the end of 2022, after Japan ($712 billion) and the United Kingdom ($663.4 billion).

So the royals’ itinerary includes a midday event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard about business startups and ways to accelerate clean technology .

They will also go on a tour of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where they will “discuss urban challenges such as climate action, affordable housing and societal resilience” with community leaders, according to the Dutch government. Their day will end with a reception at Hudson Yards in Manhattan; the king and Mayor Eric Adams are expected to speak there.

The trip is not the royals’ first visit to New York. Willem-Alexander and Máxima visited in 2009, when he was the crown prince (he ascended to the throne in 2013). Máxima had lived in New York from 1996 to 2000 when she was an investment banker.

They arrived in New York City after two days in Georgia and one in Albany. (Willem-Alexander flew the plane there, too, according to a spokeswoman for the Netherlands Embassy in Washington.) Willem-Alexander’s focus was on jobs during a session at a nanotechnology center in Albany that describes itself as the largest nonprofit semiconductor research-and-development facility in the country . Willem-Alexander was all business in his brief remarks there, saying that trade with the Netherlands accounted for 57,000 jobs in New York State.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said that “New York became what it is because of the Dutch” and mentioned names like Brooklyn and the New York Knicks that have Dutch roots. She also referred to the Schuyler mansion in Albany, where Elizabeth Schuyler grew up. Of the three daughters in the household — familiar to theatergoers who’ve seen “Hamilton” — she was the one who married the man whose portrait is on the $10 bill.

Later, as the king looked on, Hochul and a Dutch trade official signed a memorandum of understanding that confirmed shared interests in advancing semiconductor research and development.

Today, after their stops in Brooklyn, Willem-Alexander and Máxima will walk through an exhibition commemorating 400 years of Dutch history in New York at the New-York Historical Society on the Upper West Side. The exhibition includes a 1626 letter that describes the “purchase” of Manhattan from Native Americans for 60 guilders, which later was said to have been $24.

The exhibition also includes a letter from three chiefs of contemporary Lenape communities whose ancestors lived in Manhattan when the Dutch arrived with hopes of establishing a Dutch republic in North America. And the exhibition displays a map of New Amsterdam, called the Castello Plan, that was painted around 1660, long before Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to the British.

So what do you say when a king and queen cross the threshold?

“I’m going to invite them to have a look at Dutch history, beginning at the very beginning,” said Louise Mirrer, the president and chief executive of the historical society .

“What’s eye-opening is to see evidence that the Dutch actually did believe they had purchased Manhattan from the Lenape,” she said. “The letter really says something about how cultures can understand each other incorrectly, or misunderstand one another. Obviously, history bore out how the misunderstanding was disadvantageous to the Lenape.”

Enjoy a sunny day in the mid-80s. The evening should be mostly clear, with temperatures in the low 70s.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

In effect until Monday (Eid al-Adha).

The latest Metro news

Curbing broker fees : A majority of the City Council supports a bill that would transfer the cost of most broker fees from renters to landlords .

Controversy at a NYCHA playground : Signs put up at Wise Towers say the playground is for residents only. There have been tense encounters with some neighbors on the wealthy, liberal Upper West Side .

Menendez trial : Philip Sellinger, New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, testified in the bribery trial of Senator Robert Menendez, his onetime close friend, fund-raiser and political ally .

Move to fight the halt of congestion pricing : The New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, and a group of stakeholders have developed a legal strategy to try to overturn Gov. Kathy Hochul’s shutdown of the Midtown toll program .

What we’re watching : Stefanos Chen, a Metro reporter for The New York Times, will discuss the current state of congestion pricing on “The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. [ CUNY TV ].

Embezzlement charge : Prosecutors say that the head of the charity Modest Needs crowdsourced donations for the poor but spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at high-end restaurants .

Selling firearms through Telegram : Manhattan prosecutors say that a Texas man operated through a white-supremacist channel on Telegram that they discovered after the racist massacre in Buffalo two years ago.

Arts & Culture

Fake bags on display but not for sale : A new exhibition on the corner of Broadway and Canal Street that looks like a store is meant to draw attention to the prevalence of “superfake” handbags .

Celebrations for two New York icons : The Apollo Theater celebrated its 90th anniversary and a Tribeca Film Festival dinner celebrated artists and one of its co-founders, Robert De Niro .

Adams praised a reporter’s ‘summer body’

Mayor Eric Adams told a journalist who asked him about pro-Palestinian demonstrations that it looked as if he had been working out and complimented the reporter’s “summer body.”

One of the mayor’s top female advisers, sitting nearby at City Hall, shook her head in disbelief. Another deputy mayor looked down and covered her eyes.

My colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons writes that the remark was not unusual for Adams. He often comments on people’s physical appearance or clothing. And while he speaks proudly about the number of top cabinet officials who are women, he has also made the point to note that they lead while wearing Christian Louboutin shoes, with their signature red-soled heels.

This was not the first time that Adams had singled out the reporter he said had a “summer body” — Pete Cuddihy, an intern at Fox News. At a news conference in March, when Cuddihy asked about the city’s housing crisis, the mayor said, “I like that turtleneck — people don’t wear turtlenecks anymore.”

A spokeswoman for Fox News sent a statement from Cuddihy that said: “Speaking only about my interaction on June 11 with Mayor Adams, I felt his comments towards me were friendly, and I did not feel uncomfortable.”

Adams is far from the only notable elected official who has been criticized for making comments that seem inappropriate. President Biden has made remarks about people’s physical appearance; Donald Trump often mocks people’s physical appearance and was found liable in a civil trial for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll. And the Justice Department found that Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, subjected female employees to a “sexually hostile work environment,” made unwanted comments and gave preferential treatment to some employees based on their physical appearance.

Adams, a Democrat, was himself accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting a colleague in 1993 when he was a police officer.

Fabien Levy, a deputy mayor and Adams’s chief spokesman, said the mayor “would never intentionally make someone feel uncomfortable. He’s a warm and engaging person who talks to New Yorkers the way any regular New Yorker speaks to one another.”

METROPOLITAN diary

Dear Diary:

Anyone who lived or worked in Midtown Manhattan in the 1970s and ’80s knew Gene Palma as the guy who “played” Sixth Avenue. He even had a cameo in “Taxi Driver.”

With shoe-polish blackened hair and heavy makeup, Gene would play his drum on the sidewalk. Sometimes, he would bang his sticks on newspaper vending machines, or sit on the curb and play the street itself.

In the winter, to avoid the frigid north wind that swept down the avenues, he would move onto the side streets. Once, when I saw him on 52nd Street, I asked why he moved onto the side streets every winter.

“The sound’s better,” he said.

— Jace Weaver

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here .

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee . You can find all our puzzles here .

Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.

James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city. More about James Barron

Queen’s Club 2024: Carlos Alcaraz handed tough opener by Cinch Championships draw

The current champion and top seed at Queen’s Club Carlos Alcaraz will not be able to ease back into the ATP Tour.

In the aftermath of his stunning run at the French Open, the Spaniard will be a strong favourite to retain his title.

Alcaraz’s first opponent at Queens will be Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo, so he will need to be primed for the challenge.

The world No 2 could face the British No 1 in the second round provided Jack Draper can get beyond Mariano Navone.

The 2023 runner-up and No 2 seed Alex de Minaur has been in phenomenal form of late and will be among the title contenders at the Queen’s Club.

De Minaur will face Stuttgart Open semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti in the opening round which gets underway on 17 June.

The No 3 seed is another red-hot star and Grigor Dimitrov is player to watch out for at Queens. He will face off with experienced Frenchman Adrian Mannarino to start his tilt.

Fourth seed Taylor Fritz will face a qualifier while his countryman and fifth seed Tommy Paul will take on Sebastian Baez to get things underway.

The likes of Holger Rune, Ben Shelton and Ugo Humbert are among the other seeded players and each are capable of enjoying a great run at the Cinch Championships.

Shelton will take on a qualifier to start his campaign as the No 6 seed after suffering a second round exit in last season’s championship.

Rune’s No 7 seeding hasn’t prevented him from getting a tough draw on grass against serve and volley expert Jordan Thompson.

No 8 seed Humbert gets going against Matteo Arnaldi and could face Frances Tiafoe in the second round with the American missing out on a seeding this term.

Dan Evans and Andy Murray have been given wildcards into the main draw along with compatriot Billy Harris.

Evans faces Brandon Nakashima in his first round assignment at Queen’s Club, meanwhile Murray will face a qualifier.

Murray and Evans have also entered the doubles draw as a team and they are among a number of singles stars who have paired up for this tournament.

The British pair will face fourth seeds and defending champions Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the first round.

The 10 ATP players with the best grass-court records: ft. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic

The 2024 ATP Doubles Trial also continues at the Cinch Championships with changes including less time between points, adjustments to time allowances during changeovers, the use of “time extensions” and other innovations.

“I’m excited to see the ATP continue to try to test ways to figure out things to try to improve the doubles product and unlock more value for all the different stakeholders: players, fans, tournaments, streaming, TV and broadcasters,” Tournament Director Jamie Murray said.

“We were excited to be a part of that and hopefully, it’s a positive experience for the players and fans that are coming to watch it at Queen’s this week.”