ROYAL VISIT TO BURNHAM

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27213, 3 December 1953, Page 12

ROYAL VISIT TO BURNHAM

QUEEN TO HAVE MORNING TEA

PREPARATIONS AT CAMP Buildings at Burnham Military Camp are being repainted, flower beds have been replanted, a lawn is being enlarged and sections of roadway are being sealed. These preparations are for the visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to the camp for an hour on the morning of Friday, January 22, on their way to “Longbeach.” They will arrive at 10.50 a.m. The Queen and the Duke are to have morning tea under an awning on the lawn in front of the officers’ mess. If it is wet, the party will have tea in the mess. To reach the mess they will drive up Bell road, which turns off Powles road at the camp cinema. For this reason about half a chain of Bell road is being sealed. A sharp turn on the road from H block recreation ground to the camp headquarters has been converted into a sweeping bend leaving a triangle plot at the corner. The officers’ mess has had a portico built over the front door and a 12ft extension has been made to the anteroom. To give a direct entrance from the ante-room to the dining-room, a billiards room, which was in between has been shifted. A 30-piece teaset of Minton costing more than £lOO will be used for the

morning tea. The pieces are of fluted shape and blue grey in colour. Food will be prepared by Army cooks who are catering for about 120 persons. The Queen will inspect a guard of honour of 100 regular soldiers under the command of the staff officer in charge of training (Major A. J. Steele) on the H Block recreation ground Demonstrations of arms drill, physical training, and Bren gun drill will be given by compulsory military trainees. Wives and families of soldiers at the camp have been allocated positions along the south-east end of the ground. After morning tea, the Queen will meet members of the sergeants’ mess on the lawn in front of the building before leaving the camp at 11.50 a.m.