HOOPLA OVER THE QUEEN’S 1983 VISIT TO SAN DIEGO

On Feb. 26, 1983, Queen Elizabeth II stepped off the royal yacht Britannia at the Broadway Pier, becoming the first reigning British monarch to visit the U.S. West Coast.

Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died Sept. 8, 2022, after 70 years on the throne. She was 96.

From The San Diego Union, Saturday, Feb. 26, 1983:

HER MAJESTY ARRIVES TODAY

FIRST VISIT TO CALIFORNIA WILL ELICIT CURTSIES, CHEERS, PROTESTS

By R.H. Growald, Staff Writer, The San Diego Union

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Dominions beyond the Sea. Defender of the Faith, a voyager more traveled than Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan, mother, grandmother and her people’s human f lag, comes to San Diego today.

And the city is bowing, curtsying, whooping — and protesting.

In the San Diego Zoo, they washed the elephants feet for the coming of Prince Philip, Elizabeth’s husband. At the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, they readied a fanfare for the queen with trumpets, trombones, organ, timpani and, hoping she wouldn’t notice, French and not English horns.

So taken were San Diegans that they created downtown traffic jams from Market to Grape streets Friday simply angling for a look at preparations for the coming of the queen.

At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Ushi, the sea lion and a mate were made ready to whirl in a tank to show Elizabeth how America studies life below the seas that Britannia the nation used to rule.

Britannia the 412-foot royal yacht, which can be converted into hospital-ship use but now is decorated with golden dishes and flowers from Windsor Castle, this floating palace, this seven-seas advertisement of life at the top, this Love Boat of international relations, will anchor at Broadway Pier today and some of Sunday.

Only a few of America’s eighth city would meet the queen on this, the opening of her tour of the American West coast. The geography of her sightseeing, the weather and security dictate that most San Diegans would find it hard to glimpse the great guest.

Fear that the monarch might be the target of Irish Republican Army bombers or shooters galvanized a bodyguard equal only to that provided a U.S. president. The U.S. Secret Service is conducting a security orchestra including the FBI, Scotland Yard, the Royal and U.S. navies, the U.S. Coast Guard, San Diego police and other forces.

Irish groups organizing a noon rally today at New Town Park, near India and G Streets, say they will peacefully protest both the English involvement in Norther Ireland and the millions of dollars being spent by the U.S. and English governments at a time of high unemployment and troubled economies.

The royal schedule begins after breakfast, at 8:45 a.m. when the Britannia enters San Diego Diego Harbor.

The Navy booms a first 21 gun salute from

Ballast Pint . U.S. Park Rangers will open Cabrillo Point at 7 a.m.

Shelter and Harbor islands offer other perches for queen watchers. A loser view would be at Broadway Pier. But the best spots there are reserved for 3,000 people carrying invitations. Up front is the greeting committee including Gov. George Deukmejian, Presidential counselor Ed Meese, white House Deputy chief of Staff Michael Deaver, Sen. Pete Wilson, Deputy Mayor Bill Cleator.

The queen, a World war II warrior herself, will review U.S. Marine guards, sailors, a Navy band and a f lag team waving banners of all 50 states, will offer three fingers to handshakes (a whole hand tends to encourage crushing grips) and will board a U.S. Navy admiral’s barge for a tour of the harbor and its American warships.