The Duchess of Gloucester visits Bermuda

On November 11, the Duchess of Gloucester, who is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Bermuda Regiment, arrived in Bermuda for an official visit where she presented the Bermuda Regiment with new Colours at the National Sports Center on November 13 (for a detailed explaination about the presentation of colours ceremony, please visit here). It has been her second visit to Bermuda, and the first time she presented the colours to the regiment as Colonel-in-Chief. The last, and also first, time the Colours were presented was in 1965 by the late Princess Magaret, who then was the Colonel-in-Chief of the Bermuda Regiment.

The Danish-born Duchess arrived at the airport at 6:25pm local time and was welcomed by Bermuda’s premier Paula Cox, Govenor Sir Richard Gozney and Bermuda Regiment personell.

On November 12, one of the engagements for the day was to plant a tree, a Fiji fan palm, in the Governor’s palm garden. She planted another tree, a Bermuda cedar, when she traveled on to Warwick Camp and then the Duchess met with the players of the Bermuda Football Association’s National Academy and Appleby Youth League in Prospect, among them Clyde Best, a Bermudian football hero. According to the local press the Duchess was in good spirits and exited to meet the young athletes. Watching the girls in training, she seemed especially impressed. The Duchess took time and had a chat with the young girls about their football carreers and even encouraged them to keep going. Then she visited St. John Ambulance Brigade HQ at Paget and was invited to an evening reception at Commissioner’s House, Dockyard.

On November 13, the Presentation of the Colours took place at the National Sports Centre which was reportedly packed with people who were curious to watch the event that happens only once every 25 years. “In 2009, the year of your great 400th Anniversary, the Queen visited Bermuda, and today I am delighted to be able to bring Her Majesty’s warmest good wishes to everyone,” the Duchess said. “A year on, I am so pleased to come to Bermuda myself with the very special task of presenting new Colours to my regiment.” She also added: “It’s important the Regiment remembers its past because in the future its members may be asked to give that little bit extra, which can make all the difference between victory and defeat.”

The Duchess of Gloucester, who became Chief-in-Colonel of the Bermuda Regiment in 2006, finished her official visit with a Wreath-Laying ceremony in St George’s, that was followed by a Remembrance Ceremony at St Peter’s Church on November 14.

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Bermuda, Football, Military, Official Visit, Patronage, Sport, The Duchess of Gloucester.