Revisiting Queen Elizabeth II’s trips to New Westminster

Having been referred to as the Royal City for decades, New Westminster shares ties with the monarchy. It’s been the scene of three official visits by Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the age of 96.

It started with a train ride...

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, made her first official visit to New Westminster by train.

It was a summer day just before 10am on July 15, 1959—six years after her coronation—when people in New West began to swarm the train carrying the royal couple; its whistle announcing their arrival.

As The Vancouver Sun recounts, New West mayor Elizabeth “Beth” Wood was looking somewhat nervous as she waited to welcome the duo. Wood, along with thousands more, watched the Queen step off the train with Prince Philip. As camera flashes went off, the couple was whisked away to Queen’s Park for a New West welcome.

Mayor Wood would later say that, during their meeting at the station, the Queen “smiled sweetly” and mentioned how happy she was to be out with Wood on “such a lovely morning.”

Elizabeth returns in 1971

It was just a few lines, but for royal watchers it would have, at the time, been enough to elicit a gasp in the Dec. 1, 1970 edition of The Vancouver Sun.

“Queen may visit city.”

Based on the quick blurb by an unnamed staff reporter, then-New West mayor Muni Evers told council the night prior that Queen Elizabeth II could visit on May 8.

Evers called it: on Saturday May 8, 1971—in time for May Day kick-off—a 21-anvil salute was fired off and, as Sun reporter Moira Farrow wrote, smaller, more informal events seemed to break through what Farrow described as “the formal structure of the itinerary and turned it into a gay and sunny party.”

The BC tour was part of a visit to mark Centennial celebrations, with the CBC reporting members of the royal family first arrived on Apr. 21, 1971. They’d made their way to Canada on the royal yacht Britannica, with about 25,000 people crowding the docks as the vessel moored in Victoria.

After touring their way through the Island, they headed to Vancouver—and then it was off to New Westminster for May Day celebrations.

The Queen, flanked by signs held by locals reading "The Queen is a nice lady" and "Liberate the Royal Family" didn’t actually get to listen to the final shot of the anvil salute because two officials had put a halt to it: they didn’t want to scare her. The salute ended at the 15th bang! 

Prince Philip was not there for the start of his visit, because he had to head off to UBC to stand in for his daughter, then-20-year-old Princess Anne, at a luncheon; Anne had been sick with what reporters had called “tummy troubles.” The princess was told by the Queen’s doctor to “spend another day resting on board the royal yacht.” Philip did manage to make the back half of the celebrations in New West, arriving by helicopter.

Then, it was mayor Evers’ grandson’s turn to shine: after opening remarks by other local mayors in attendance, six-year-old Michael Archibald handed a bouquet of red, white, and blue flowers to the monarch. Sun reporters say the flowers were Archibald’s choice of colour.

The cavalcade headed off to Queen’s Park Stadium to watch as youngsters danced around Maypoles—22 of them—while a separate group of girls in frilly dresses and carrying flower baskets danced in front of the royals.

In the same issue, Queen Elizabeth II said she would like to return to BC, with then-Vancouver mayor Tom Campbell saying “the Queen was most impressed by the warmth of the welcome she’s had here… apparently she has not been so warmly received in other countries.”

A 20-minute visit in 1983

Eight-year-old Andrea Dadson made a heart-wrenching appeal to the Queen: “Dear Queen Elizabeth. I love you. I am in a wheel chair [sic]. I hop [sic] you don’t mind.”

The Surrey youngster’s wish was featured in the Feb. 28, 1983 edition of The Vancouver Sun. According to Farrow, Dadson's request was simple: all she wanted was a glimpse of the Queen, who was set to come to New West in a few weeks’ time. Dadson’s mother Val, who was also a director of the Lower Mainland Spina Bifida Association, said her daughter had “all the books about the Royal Family.”

Dadson’s letter worked: she was one of a few who, after sending the letter off to The Sun, was able to get a front-row seat for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit; The Sun had sent the letter to New West city hall, which then made the arrangements.

Dadson’s grandmother had even purchased a red and white dress for the 20-minute visit, which took place the following month. And in a Sun issue that went out on March 11, 1983, you can see Dadson sitting in her wheelchair, handing something to Her Royal Highness. The paper called it a "moment of magic."

“When the Queen arrived by car,” a write-up from Sun reporter Pete McMartin reads, “she walked with her entourage down the long driveway that runs in front of city hall, but walking past Andrea. Hearts sank.”

McMartin says a Canadian military attache walked over to the little girl and asked her name, then whispered in the Queen’s ear.

“[The Queen] turned. She walked slowly over to Andrea and bent down. ‘Hello, dear,’ the Queen said.” McMartin says that’s when the girl stretched out of her wheelchair as best as she could to hand her a teddy bear.

“It’s for baby William,” she said, as the Queen thanked her.

Since the start of her reign, the Queen has made 12 official visits to BC. Her last visit was in 2002, though it did not include New West: she dropped the puck at an NHL game between the Canucks and the Sharks, watched the first period of the match, then headed to Victoria for a stop at the legislature.