Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2013/January 2014 | Page 13

The day the
Queen was
amused..!
By Peter White
Among the many duties of the Lord-Lieutenant of the Isle of
Wight, as The Queen’s representative here, is to organise, oversee
and try to ensure the smooth running of all Royal visits. He is the
first to greet the Royal visitors and the last to say farewell.
Since becoming the Island’s Lord Lieutenant in October 2006,
Major General Martin White has been responsible for around 25
such visits, including that of The Queen in 2012 as part of Her
Diamond Jubilee tour of the nation.
Thankfully for Martin, Royal trips to the Island invariably go
without a hitch – perhaps what you would expect from a man
with 35 years’ military experience to fall back on. But the visits
have their lighter moments, as he revealed when I caught up
with him at his home in Seaview.
Reflecting on Her Majesty’s most recent visit, he said: “The
Queen decided in Her Diamond Jubilee year to see as much of
Her Kingdom as she could. It was decided the Regional Tour
should be hosted by the Lord Lieutenants, and I was asked to
suggest a suitable programme for The Queen to come here. We put
in a joint proposal with Hampshire, hoping it would strengthen
both cases, and 18 months later we heard we had got it.
“My idea for the bid was to focus on maritime, youth and
volunteering. So The Queen walked along Cowes Parade, next to
the sea; the youth of Cowes Primary School sung Her a specially
written song, She opened the new inshore lifeboat station and
met volunteer lifeboat crews and She then visited Cowes Yacht
Haven by sea, which was filled with maritime volunteer groups.”
Everything was timed to perfection, and went according to plan,
until the Royal entourage was about to head to Somerton Farm
to meet the helicopter to take The Queen to the South of England
Show. Martin said: “When we had finished at the Yacht Haven we
were just a few minutes early, and when we reached a junction in
Cowes, the cars should have turned left, but went right.
“I was two cars behind The Queen’s car, and I feared we would
all end up in a cul de sac at the back of an industrial estate in
Cowes, and I would end up in the Tower! Thankfully I was
informed the Royal cars were just killing time, and as we arrived