he visit of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the two Princesses in 1947 was an occasion of great rejoicing in Rhodesia. For the most part the Royal party travelled by train which allowed them to visit many different centres.

he family made the journey from Pretoria to Salisbury by air on the morning of Easter Monday, and before noon that day the King ceremonially opened the Legislative Assembly. The remainder of the three days that the Royal family spent in Salisbury was devoted mainly to social functions, the purpose being to allow the largest possible number of people to spend a moment in their presence or exchange a few words with their Majesties. At a parade of ex-service men the King met fifty survivors of the Pioneer Column of 1890.

ater Princess Elizabeth was presented at Government House with a brooch of platinum and diamonds representing a flame lily in honour of her approaching twenty-first birthday; it was the gift of the Rhodesian people who had subscribed £10 000 towards the cost.

n 10 April the Royal Family passed in the White Train through various towns and arrived next day at the Victoria Falls. Repeated visits were made to the Falls during the next few days, which took the form of a welcome holiday.

ulawayo was then visited. The King met veterans of the Matabele War, and next day, 15 April, held an Indaba for Rhodesian chiefs in the Matopo Hills. Then the Royal Family made a pilgrimage to the bald hill-top, strewn with enormous granite boulders, which has been set aside as the burial ground of “those who have deserved well of their country”. At the top they stood for some time in silent reverence in memory of Cecil John Rhodes, admiring the dignity of the spot which the Founder chose as his last resting place.

n 16 April 1947 the Royal Family left Rhodesia, but Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother has toured the country on two separate occasions since then: to open the Kariba Hydra-Electric scheme and to lay the foundation stone of the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland — predecessor of the multi-racial University of Rhodesia — of which she was installed as Chancellor.