During her reign, Queen Elizabeth II has visited the Cayman Islands twice – first in 1983 and again in 1994.
On both visits, she was accompanied by her husband Prince Philip.
For the first trip to Cayman on 16 Feb. 1983, which lasted just a single day, the couple was welcomed at Owen Roberts International Airport by elected officials and senior civil servants, as well as by an estimated 5,000 people – more than a quarter of the population at the time.
Despite it being a whistle-stop trip, the royal couple managed to visit each of the districts on Grand Cayman.
In West Bay, schoolchildren and residents waved at the royal couple, who then boarded a luxury sport-fishing yacht to take them from Morgan’s Harbour to Cayman Kai.
During the visit to the northern part of the island, the queen opened the five-mile-long North Side/East End road, named Queen’s Highway.
On her tour of Bodden Town, she got a taste of local culture when she visited a traditional Caymanian house constructed of wattle and daub.
Two middle school students presented the queen and Prince Philip with handmade gifts – a straw bag made in the shape of Grand Cayman for the queen and a straw hat with ‘Cayman Islands’ painted on the brim for the prince.
Queen Elizabeth also officially opened The Pines Retirement Home in George Town on that trip.
1994 visit
In 1994, the royal couple again visited Cayman, on 26-27 Feb., part of an eight-stop Caribbean tour. Cayman was the fifth destination on the itinerary.
This time, they arrived aboard the royal yacht Britannia, and were greeted by Governor Michael Gore and his wife Monica, who introduced them to local dignitaries.
During that visit, the queen’s arm was in a plaster cast and sling. She had broken her wrist in a fall from a horse at her Sandringham estate in Norfolk a few weeks earlier.
After inspecting a Royal Cayman Islands Police Service guard of honour, the queen entered the Legislative Assembly, and delivered a throne speech, outlining the plans of the government for the coming year.
She began her speech with, “Prince Philip and I are delighted to make this return visit to these beautiful islands. I am especially pleased to be present today to open the Legislative Assembly and deliver my speech in person.”
Throne speeches are typically delivered by the queen’s representative, the governor.
She told the House that she and her husband had been “touched by the welcome we received this morning”.
During that visit, she knighted former Financial Secretary Vassel Johnson, who had been instrumental in developing the financial services industry in Cayman. Following the investiture ceremony, in which a number of other prominent Caymanians were awarded MBEs and OBEs by the queen, Cayman’s longest serving elected politician at the time, John McLean, presented her with a Caymanite sculpture of two hawksbill turtles, created by Eddie Scott of Cayman Brac.
She also officially opened both the Ed Bush Sports Complex in West Bay and the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park in North Side.
At each one of her appearances, crowds turned out by the thousands to get a glimpse at the monarch.
In an echo of the rain forecast this weekend, which has put off some of the events to mark the jubilee, it was also rainy on the day the queen took her leave from Cayman for the last time, on 27 Feb. 1994. Then, she said her farewells from under a clear plastic umbrella before stepping on board the tender that took her back to the Britannia in George Town Harbour.
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