Royal Visit

Whitehaven's Sea Cadets were bursting with pride when they met Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh during a Royal visit to Whitehaven on 5th June.

Her Majesty The Queen during her inspection of Whitehaven Sea Cadets.

Photo: Mark Kennedy

An estimated ten thousand people filled the harbour area to greet the Royal couple, who were here as part of the celebrations commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Town and Harbour of Whitehaven. And in the middle of it all were a 48-strong contingent of Cadets and Staff from TS BEE, who had been invited to provide a Guard of Honour for Her Majesty and His Royal Highness.

Whitehaven's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant (SCC) Peter Lucas RNR - who had also been asked to act as Parade Commander - said that it was a huge honour but it also presented some fairly unique challenges. "Although we had plenty of advance notice, the information had to be strictly limited to a very few members of our Staff and Management Committee." said Peter. "Planning for something like this when you don't have an exact programme and timings is difficult enough. Not being allowed to tell anyone about it until a week or so before the event makes the job almost impossible. But we managed, even coping with various small changes which were being made right up until the evening before."

Her Majesty arrived in Whitehaven at 1000 and went directly to tour The Beacon, a recently-refurbished art gallery and museum complex located right on the harbourside. Accompanied by Prince Phillip, she then met our President, Rear Admiral Steve Morgan USN before inspecting a Colour Party made up of one British and four US Sailors from the Joint Military Force based in Cornwall. Then it was our turn. Escorted by R/Adm Morgan and Lt Lucas, both Her Majesty and His Royal Highness inspected our own Colour Party and the rest of the cadets, pausing to speak with most of the cadets as well as several members of staff.

Although the original plan was for Her Majesty to inspect only the front two ranks of cadets, she took the decision to also inspect the rear rank and even called back some of her staff who had started to move on to the next section of the visit. "It really took everyone by surprise, especially me." added Peter Lucas. "I really thought that these events were planned to the smallest detail. But Her Majesty had clearly decided that she wished to meet all the cadets, which makes us feel even more proud and honoured."

Two lucky cadets had even more reason to feel both proud and honoured. While The Queen was touring The Beacon one of the Royal equerries, an RAF Officer had approached Lt Lucas and asked if two female cadets could be made available to come forward to him at his signal. The officer chose Able Cadet Emily Lucas (14) and Marine Cadet Viki Hamilton (17) and told them that they were to follow closely behind Her Majesty and carry the flowers given to her by well-wishers. Afterwards, Emily and Viki said it had been a huge honour. "Most of the dozens of flowers were given to us by people in the crowd, but several times The Queen herself gave us flowers which she had received. It made us really proud."

Whitehaven Sea Cadets - TS BEE

Whitehaven Cadets Meet The Queen