Waipā Mayor Susan O'Regan and plaque project organiser Luke Dixon at the unveiling of the plaque to commemorate the visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954. Photo / Julia McCarthy-Fox
Waipā Mayor Susan O'Regan and plaque project organiser Luke Dixon at the unveiling of the plaque to commemorate the visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954. Photo / Julia McCarthy-Fox
After more than two years of planning, lobbying and fundraising the day finally came.
It would have been impossible to believe when I began planning this in mid-2020 that by the time the mayor and I came to unveil the plaque, the Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen would no longer be with us.
This project has been a labour of love and in the months before she passed away it was approved by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Platinum Jubilee.
In unveiling this plaque (funded by individual donations and a grant from the Te Awamutu Community Board) we are preserving the memory of one of the most momentous days in our district’s 158-year history.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Te Awamutu during their post-coronation 1953-4 tour of the Commonwealth.
In New Zealand, they visited around 46 towns and attended 110 official engagements, including a luncheon at the Cambridge Town Hall and a visit to the Karāpiro Hydro Power Station.
This was the first time a reigning monarch had visited our country and the first royal visit to our town.
Crowds gathered in Te Awamutu's main street for the royal visit in 1954.
The royal train carrying the future King Edward VIII passed through Te Awamutu in 1920, but this 1954 visit was the first time a royal had set foot in our town - 12 years later, in 1966, her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, also visited Te Awamutu and in 1990 the Queen again visited Waipā, as have other royals in more recent years.
It was a great pleasure to stand with our new mayor, Susan O’Regan, to honour the lifetime of service given to both our country and our wider Commonwealth family by the late Queen and her husband.
Since I embarked on this project I’ve had the privilege of attending the State Memorial Services for both our late Queen and the late Duke, but it has been especially poignant to pay this more personal tribute to them both.
Her late majesty had an immense connection with the people of the Waikato.
I’m told she had horses in Cambridge studs, cattle bred in Ōtorohanga, in 1970 the Fieldays were rescheduled so she could attend, she attended a race meeting at Te Rapa in 1977 and in 1990 paid personal visits to friends in both Cambridge and Ōtorohanga.
Her majesty was a countrywoman at heart and was adored and admired by countless generations of Te Awamutu locals.
May this plaque serve as a permanent reminder of her life of service and of the admiration in which she was held by the people of our community.
