Remembering Queen Elizabeth’s visits to Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ) – Queen Elizabeth visited Virginia not less than 4 occasions throughout her reign.

The primary got here in 1957, for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, and the final – 50 years later – for the celebration of Jamestown’s four-hundredth.

Over two days in early Could, 2007 she travelled to Jamestown and Williamsburg, and to the State Capitol in Richmond.

Cheers rose from the group as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stepped from the Govt Mansion with then Governor Tim Kaine and First Girl Anne Holton.

She set off on a “walkabout,” accepting items and sharing phrases with the well-wishers who had gathered in Capitol Sq..

Her go to got here simply two weeks after the Virginia Tech Tragedy.

“My coronary heart goes out to the scholars mates and households of all these killed and to the various others who’ve been affected,” the monarch mentioned throughout remarks to a joint session of the Virginia Common Meeting.

She consoled the Virginia Tech group in her speech and she or he met with college students and households of the victims.

“So the truth that she knew that the go to was largely a celebration, however there have been some individuals who have been actually going by a number of ache and she or he wished to be with them for a couple of minutes mentioned an terrible lot about her character,” Sen. Tim Kaine mentioned Thursday afternoon. “So Virginians are actually, actually unhappy to listen to this information immediately.”

The Queen’s reference to the Commonwealth of Virginia started 50 years earlier, when she participated within the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.

Charlottesville welcomed the Queen in 1976 throughout the nation’s bicentennial celebration, when greater than 20,000 folks gathered on the garden on the College of Virginia, and heard her pay tribute to Thomas Jefferson.

“It’s a shifting expertise to face right here amidst the wonder he created of this college and to mirror that it was for that that he wished to be remembered, fairly than for his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, a doc which modified the course of historical past,” the Queen mentioned in her remarks.

“She actually dominated, served as Monarch for 70 years. I imply, take into consideration that. That’s what, virtually 30 % of the time that we’ve been a nation,” mentioned Sen. Mark Warner Thursday afternoon. “She was in some ways the glue that not solely held the UK collectively, however near 40 – 50 international locations I consider which might be a part of the Commonwealth. It isn’t solely a loss for the British folks, however a loss I feel for the world.”

Throughout her final go to to Virginia, Queen Elizabeth was right here for simply over 24 hours, however 15 years later, many Virginians keep in mind her visits effectively, and lots of are mourning with the British folks.

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