Queen held deep respect for Calgary troopers

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When the Queen travelled to Alberta in 2005 to have a good time the province’s centennial, Calgary wasn’t even on the agenda.

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However Her Majesty had different concepts. The Edmonton capital was fantastic for all that pomp and ceremony, marking 100 years of provincial historical past, however she wanted to journey south. She needed to see her troopers.

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The bond between the preventing women and men of Calgary and Queen Elizabeth II was a deep and enduring one. She was colonel-in-chief of the Calgary Highlanders and the King’s Personal Calgary Regiment in addition to being the figurehead of the Royal Canadian Artillery and Canadian Corps of Engineers, each of that are represented within the metropolis.

So, a go to to Alberta couldn’t go with out paying respect to those that serve, a advantage that the late Queen understood all too effectively.

Kent Griffiths is a retired main with the Calgary Highlanders and the present curator of its regimental museum. He recollects that go to 17 years in the past as if it was yesterday.

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“Initially, the centennial tour had not deliberate to cease in Calgary, however at her path, it did so. She mentioned, ‘If I’m coming to Alberta, then I’m stopping in Calgary to see my troopers,”’ mentioned Griffiths.

See them she did, all lined up, eagerly ready for his or her sovereign at a night reception on the Museum of the Regiments, the predecessor to the Army Museums, on Crowchild Path.

It was a constructing she’d quietly helped get constructed, a few years earlier, when suggesting to the then-Highlanders’ honorary colonel, throughout an annual required go to to Buckingham Palace — that particular person being Calgary businessman Fred Mannix — {that a} royal look at such a possible opening occasion could be simply the required push wanted to have these reluctant three ranges of presidency lastly conform to provide you with appropriate funds.

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So, after all, they did and, subsequently, the Queen arrived, waving and smiling on the subsequent opening as if this had nothing in any respect to do along with her.

Fifteen years later, she returned to the constructing she knew so effectively and, glancing in regards to the gathered and expectant crowd, her eyes landed on Griffiths.

“She made eye contact then walked over. ‘Mr. Griffiths, how good to see you once more.’

“How may this occur? Effectively, she is — or sadly, was — essentially the most well-informed particular person on the planet. She was so effectively briefed: Who’s right here? Oh, that bald man with the moustache is simple to select and I met him a couple of years in the past.” 

Sure, certainly, they’d met beforehand. Just a few years earlier in Buckingham Palace no much less, when Griffiths, again then the Highlanders’ Regimental sergeant main, becoming a member of his commanding officer and honorary colonel for an viewers with their superior rating officer.

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“The three of us sat in one in all her reception rooms. We talked in regards to the regiment for 5 or 10 minutes after which went on to speak about politics in Canada and our private histories,” mentioned Griffiths.

“It was completely wonderful how a lot this girl knew. She requested about how Canadian troopers, injured in Afghanistan, have been handled — in the event that they make it again are they then completed their tour? We mentioned, sure, they have been.

“She mentioned that in Britain it was the alternative. They needed to end their mission after they recovered. She had a tear within the eye and mentioned it made her so unhappy, as a result of the day earlier she’d visited injured troopers from Afghanistan and so they knew they needed to return and end their mission.

“Seeing her shook up, I believed it’s wonderful how a lot she actually appreciates her troopers in the entire Commonwealth,” he added.

By no means extra so than these right here in Calgary.