The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

KING Charles III will return to The Bahamas in October more than half a century after he stood in Nassau as a 24-year-old prince and witnessed the birth of an independent Bahamian nation.

His visit will continue a long history of royal tours that has taken members of the British Royal Family to The Bahamas for some of the defining moments in the country’s modern history — from the final years of colonial rule and Independence to the 1985 Commonwealth summit that produced the Nassau Accord.

For King Charles, however, the return will be particularly significant.

He last made an official visit to The Bahamas in July 1973, when, as Prince of Wales, he represented his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at the Independence celebrations.

Serving at the time in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Minerva, he was present as the Union Jack was lowered and the aquamarine, gold and black Bahamian flag was raised for the first time.

He represented the Queen at the flag-raising ceremony and handed over the Instruments of Independence as nearly 250 years of British colonial rule ended.

Five decades later, he recalled the occasion in vivid terms in a message marking the country’s 50th anniversary of Independence in 2023.

He said he remembered “with great fondness” the police band playing March On Bahamaland and the first raising of the Bahamian flag.

He also recalled attending three Independence balls and dancing at the first with Dame Marguerite Pindling, wife of then Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling.

“The Bahamas has always held a special place in my affections,” the King said.

His return this year will be his first visit to the country since becoming King following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.

The late Queen’s own association with The Bahamas stretched across nearly three decades and five visits between 1966 and 1994.

She first arrived with her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in February 1966, when The Bahamas was still a British colony.

The couple’s visit was part of an extensive Caribbean tour aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The Queen returned in February 1975, less than two years after Independence, and again in October 1977 during her Silver Jubilee year.

The 1977 visit left a particularly visible mark. The Queen opened Parliament and officially commissioned ZNS television on October 20, ushering in television broadcasting by the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas.

Her fourth visit came in October 1985 and coincided with one of the most consequential international gatherings ever held in New Providence.

Commonwealth leaders assembled here for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting as divisions deepened over how to confront South Africa’s apartheid regime.

The summit produced the Nassau Accord, under which Commonwealth leaders agreed on measures intended to pressure South Africa to dismantle apartheid.

After the Queen’s death in 2022, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis highlighted her role during the meeting, saying her support and encouragement had helped Commonwealth leaders reach agreement.

The Queen also opened the Elizabeth Estates subdivision during her 1985 visit.

Her fifth and final visit to The Bahamas came in March 1994.

The Royal Family’s records and King Charles’ own account identify five visits by the Queen and Prince Philip between 1966 and 1994. The Davis administration, in its parliamentary tribute following her death, referred to four “official visits” — 1966, 1977, 1985 and 1994 — leaving out the February 1975 trip.

Other members of the Royal Family have also been frequent visitors.

Princess Margaret visited the country in 1955 during an extensive tour of Britain’s Caribbean colonies.

Prince Philip made a separate visit in April 1959, when large crowds gathered in New Providence and he was received with the elaborate ceremony associated with royal tours during the colonial era.

Princess Anne visited in 1979 as The Bahamas marked the 250th anniversary of its Parliament.

More recently, Prince Harry visited in March 2012 as part of celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

During the trip, his first solo overseas tour representing the Queen, Harry attended events in New Providence and travelled to Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.

A decade later, Prince William and Catherine, then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, arrived for a three-day visit from March 24 to 26, 2022, as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Their tour took them beyond the capital to Abaco and Grand Bahama.

Here, the couple met Prime Minister Davis, visited Sybil Strachan Primary School, met frontline workers and attended a Junkanoo parade and sailing regatta.

They later travelled to communities recovering from Hurricane Dorian in Abaco and Grand Bahama, visited the Grand Bahama Children’s Home and toured Coral Vita.

The tour also unfolded amid a changing debate about the monarchy’s place in the Caribbean, with questions about slavery, reparations and the constitutional future of Commonwealth realms receiving international attention during William and Catherine’s regional trip.

The King now returns to a country different from the one he visited in 1973.