As the U.K. and people around the world mourn the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth, the Richmond News remembers the day Her Majesty came to town to open the Massey Tunnel.
The Queen passed away peacefully on Thursday afternoon (U.K. time) at Balmoral, the Royal Family’s estate in Scotland.
On July 15 in 1959, just seven years into her reign, a fresh-faced “Queen of Canada” – as she was then - arrived here to officially cut the ribbon on what was then called the Deas Island Tunnel, later renamed after George Massey.
In front of a cheering crowd, and with husband Prince Philip in tow, the Queen “graciously opened” – as per the unveiled plaque to that effect – the tunnel, according to records and a grainy, black and white video on YouTube.
The Queen did return to Richmond in 1971 for B.C.’s centennial celebrations — but there are no records of her doing anything official in the city and Vancouver Airport was likely her only local stop.
