Princess Anne to visit Maritime Museum of B.C. during trip

Princess Anne is expected to stop by the Maritime Museum of B.C. Collection and Archives during her visit to Victoria.

The princess and her husband, Sir Tim Laurence, will be in Victoria and Vancouver as part of their visit to Canada, May 3-5.

The couple is expected to meet with the museum’s board of directors, staff and volunteers May 4, and view some of the 45,000 objects in the museum’s collection — some of which came from the National Maritime Museum, one of the Royal Museums Greenwich.

Brittany Vis, executive director of the Maritime Museum of B.C., said during their 1951 visit to Victoria, the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip toured the navy base in Esquimalt. Phillip inquired about a naval museum on the West Coast.

“When told there was none, he set about to change that,” Vis said.

“When he got home to England, he contacted the Greenwich Museum and asked them to send some objects to B.C. to start a new naval museum.”

The fledgling naval museum got its start on Signal Hill, just outside the gates of HMC Dockyard in Esquimalt.

It moved to the Bastion Square courthouse in 1965, when it became the Maritime Museum of B.C. It is now located at 744 Douglas St.

On May 5, Princess Anne will visit the Victoria Therapeutic Riding Association’s Central Saanich facility.

Princess Anne was in Canada last year, visiting New Brunswick in May and Alberta in June.

Her last visit to Victoria was in 1971, when she accompanied the late Queen Elizabeth II on a tour that also took them to Nanaimo, Tofino and Comox.

The Royal Canadian Navy will host the royal couple’s stay in Canada. Princess Anne is honorary commodore-in-chief of the Canadian Fleet Pacific.