35
The Queen’s visit to Dartmouth 1972
The Queen with RM bandmaster, Rod Farrell, at BRNC 1972.
leaving Sandhurst as part of his training with all three of Britain’s Armed Forces. The Queen and Prince Philip visited again in 1972, this time for the Lord High Admiral’s Divisions, and really made the most of the visit; spending more than an hour walking and greeting the crowds with Princess Anne. The Queen herself requested the walkabout and was
received with absolute adoration – as was her husband and the young Princess. It was during this visit the Queen was delighted to
be reunited with BRNC’s Royal Marine bandmaster, Rod Farrell. Rod had spent seven years as pianist on board the
Queen’s beloved Royal Yacht Britannia and was on every Royal Tour between 1960 and 1967. Son Carl remembers: “Dad was practising on the
yacht one day when the Queen requested a piano lesson with him. Feeling nervous, he was called up to the State Drawing Room to sit next to the Queen at the baby grand piano so they could play together. Afterwards the Queen Mother, who had been watching with a gin and Dubonnet in hand, declared “Oh, how romantic!” It would be 16 years before the Queen and her husband came to Dartmouth again. During their visit in April 1988 the couple enjoyed
five unhurried hours, bathed in sunshine, as they toured the grounds of BRNC. But when they tried to leave they were unexpectedly
delayed: the Royal Cavalcade was halted by the ambulance rushing heavily pregnant Townstal woman Lisa Chesswas to hospital to deliver her daughter Claire.
Presentation of a shovel at BRNC on 7 April 1988
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