1964: Putting on a show for the Queen Mother

DRESSED in a kingfisher blue coat and matching dress and feathertrimmed hat, and accessories in brown, the Queen Mother became, in April 1964, the first royal visitor to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in its nearly 120 years of history.

To mark the special occasion, students of the academy and of the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art mixed tradition with modernity. They sang Sir Hubert Parry’s setting of Milton’s “Blest Pair of Sirens”, before drama students (above, with the Queen Mother) rehearsed part of a television play, Wild Mink, in the college studio.

The Queen Mother had been Patron of the music academy since 1944. The Glasgow College of Dramatic Art had been created in 1950; it wasn’t until 1968 that the title of Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama was approved.

The Queen Mother’s visit in 1964 came after she had officially opened Glasgow’s Museum of Transport and Lanark County Council’s new administrative headquarters in Hamilton.

She said of the latter that there was no more striking countycouncil building anywhere in Scotland.

At the ceremony, a six-year-old girl approached the platform party and accidentally handed a bouquet of flowers to Lady Clydesmuir instead of to the Queen Mother. Matters were soon put right, and the royal visitor thanked the girl with a sympathetic smile.

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