Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, passed away at Windsor Castle on 9 April, aged 99. Contact headed to the archives to look back on Prince Philip’s visit to UQ in 1954.
Representatives of the UQ Senate, staff and students gathered at short notice in March 1954 to catch a glimpse of Prince Philip, as the Duke of Edinburgh made a whirlwind tour of the St Lucia campus.
The informal UQ visit was a late addition to the 1954 royal tour of Australia, during which Prince Philip joined Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, on her first tour of Australia as British monarch.
Prince Philip arrived at UQ shortly after 6pm on 17 March and spent about one-and-a-half hours at the University, where he was received by Queensland Deputy Premier John Duggan, Chancellor Dr Otto Hirschfeld and Vice-Chancellor John Story AO.
The Duke was then escorted to the John Darnell Art Gallery, where he was presented with a souvenir of bound photographs of UQ buildings, before moving to the library, where he met and greeted about 50 student union representatives.
The visit concluded with a stroll through the Great Court cloisters to the Geology building, where Prince Philip stopped to admire a collection of minerals, murals and seismographs.
The 1954 royal tour was the biggest event ever planned in Australia at the time, with the royals visiting 57 towns and cities during the 58 days they spent in Australia.
The story of Prince Philip's visit to UQ was reported in The University of Queensland Gazette in May 1954.
