ROYAL HONOUR - QUEEN OF TONGA
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from November 1965.
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Mer Majesty Queen Salote Tupou, GCVO., GBE., Queen of Tonga, to be an Honorary Member of the First Class, or Dame Grand Cross of the Order.
Queen Salote thus becomes the first Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
Our readers may be interested to know that Queen Salote Tupou, Queen of Tonga, reigns over the Pacific island group which Captain Cook, when he visited them in the latter part of the 18th century. called "The Friendly Islands".
She is descended from an ancient dynasty whose earliest records date from the 10th century, about the time when Ethelred the Unready was King. of England. The dynasty later split into branches representing various spiritual and temporal powers until the country was re-united by the Queen's great-great-grandfather, the first King of United Tonga.
Queen Salote was born on March 13, 1900 and was educated in New Zealand, at the Diocesan Girls' College in Auckland. At the age of 17 she married her kinsman Uiliami Tungi, descended from one of the other branches of the dynasty. The name 'Salote' is Tongan for Charlotte, the present Queen being named after an ancestor who was given the same name as the wife of George III.
When Queen Salote visited Britain for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II she captured the hearts of the British people and the thousands who were gathered in London for this great event cheered her lustily wherever she went for she was always smiling.
