State visits and The Gazette: Part 9 - Other events
Following the state visit of the American president in 2025, in a ten-part series historian and honours expert Russell Malloch looks at the recent history of state visits in the UK. In this article, he explores the sporting, cultural and academic events attended by monarchs and presidents during state visits.
Chapters
The monarchs and presidents who paid a state visit to the United Kingdom often took part in a variety of events beyond the more formal carriage processions, exchange of honours, and banquets at Buckingham Palace and Guildhall.
The programme for each visit reflected the political and commercial landscape within the visitor’s nation, but it was also capable of being refined to take account of the personal interests of the principal guest, and those of their wife or companion. The nature and number of the other events usually varied according to the length of the trip, which was often for three or four days, but sometimes for much longer.
The head of state was not joined by the sovereign for many, and usually for most, of the events that made up the state visit, and instead carried on with his or her ordinary business while their guest was in the United Kingdom, and so dealt with constitutional matters such as holdings meetings of the Privy Council, performing investitures and receiving new ambassadors.
In 1975 and 1980, for example, the Queen took part in the state opening of parliament during the visits of Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and King Birendra of Nepal, while Fernando Cardoso of Brazil was entertained at Guildhall in 1997 on the same day as she attended a thanksgiving service to mark the tercentenary of St Paul’s Cathedral.
The additions that were made to the schedule for some heads of state included visits to:
- people and places connected with their nation
- the armed forces
- universities
- cultural institutions
- sporting venues
- regional cities
- commercial entities
- media organisations
National events
Some of the visitors saw the work of institutions connected with their home nation, as happened in 1903 when Emile Loubet visited the French Hospital in Shaftesbury Avenue, and the Home for French Governesses. His successors as president, including Charles de Gaulle in 1960, also went to the Shaftesbury Avenue hospital.
Receptions were regularly held for the citizens of the visitor’s nation who were resident in the United Kingdom. During Edward VII’s reign, for example, King Alfonso received members of what was called the Spanish colony in London at his embassy in 1905, while Raymond Poincare of France attended a similar event for French comrades at their embassy. The link with local residents was maintained during many of the later state visits, as in 1954 when Elizabeth II’s first guest, King Gustaf, attended a reception for the Swedish colony in the hall of the Swedish Church at Harcourt Street in London.
The local connection was celebrated with events being organised at the head of state’s London embassy or at other venues in London, as happened when Queen Beatrix met members of the Dutch community at the Banqueting House in Whitehall in 1982. Mario Soares of Portugal also saw his countrymen at the Berkeley Hotel in 1993, and Queen Margrethe of Denmark met community representatives at the Danish Club in Dover Street in 2000.
A distinctive feature of the French state visits was the honours that were paid to the memory of Charles de Gaulle, as Valery Giscard d’Estaing visited the plaque commemorating the appeal that was made by General de Gaulle at Carlton Gardens in London on 18 June 1940, shortly before the British government officially recognised him as the leader of “all free Frenchmen wherever they may be, who rally to him in support of the Allied cause”. Similar tributes were paid at de Gaulle’s plaque by Francis Mitterrand in 1984, while Jacques Chirac laid a wreath at de Gaulle’s statue in Carlton Gardens, which was unveiled by the Queen Mother in 1993. Wreaths were later placed at the statue by Nicolas Sarzkozy in 2008, and Emmanuel Macron in 2025.
Other events and people of national importance were noticed in some of the programmes, as in 2003 when George Bush met victims of the 9/11 attack on America by the Islamist Al-Qaeda group, and in 2010 when Jacob Zuma of South Africa was involved in proceedings to commemorate the memory of Oliver Tambo, the leader of the African National Congress, which involved the president visiting the Tambo family home in north London where he lived in exile.
Exhibitions connected with the visitor’s country were the focus of attention for a few guests, as happened when Armand Fallieres saw the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908. Many years later Francesco Cossiga of Italy was active on the cultural front in 1990, when he inaugurated three exhibitions: “The Lion of Venice” at the British Museum, the “Italian Nocturnal Landscapes” at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the “In the Shadow of Vesuvius” at Accademia Italiana at Rutland Gate in London.
Two Chinese president also engaged in cultural affairs, as Jiang Zemin opened the “Gilded Dragon” exhibition at the British Museum in 1995, and ten years later Hu Jintao formally inaugurated the “China – the Three Emperors 1662-1795” exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.
One of the most recent events with a cultural theme came in 2025, when Emmanuel Macron of France visited the British Museum and viewed the Sutton Hoo Gallery, where he witnessed the signing of an agreement for the loan of the Sutton Hoo treasure to France, and the Bayeux tapestry to the United Kingdom.
Universities
A number of heads of state visited the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge, while a few of the monarchs and presidents ventured further afield, and saw the work of the principal academic institutions in cities such as Bristol and Liverpool in England, and in the Scottish cities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Oxford trip was one of the most popular, and often included tours of the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library, and lunch with members of the university staff.
Academic honours and distinctions were conferred on several occasions, with an Edwardian example of the degree of doctor of civil law being granted by Oxford to the German Emperor at a ceremony at Windsor Castle in 1907. Degrees were conferred on Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan, Gaston Doumergue of France and King Amanullah of Afghanistan during the 1920s, and later recipients of a “state visit” DCL from Oxford include Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1954, King Juan Carlos of Spain in 1986, and Carlo Ciampi of Italy in 2005.
The doctor of letters degree of Cambridge was occasionally timed to coincide with a state visit, with the LLD being conferred on Kenan Evren of Turkey in 1988, Nelson Mandela of South Africa in 1996, and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil in 1997.
Beyond the world of Oxford and Cambridge, other heads of state interacted with academic communities across the nation, including:
- Edinburgh conferred degrees on Emperor Hirohito of Japan in 1921, King Olav of Norway in 1962, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India in 1963, and Queen Margrethe of Denmark in 2000.
- Heriot Watt honoured King Harald of Norway in 1994
- Glasgow Caledonian noticed Thabo Mbeki of South Africa in 2001.
- Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland visited the University of London in 2004, where he unveiled the foundation stone of a building for the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
- John Kufuor of Ghana received the honorary fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 2007.
- Tony Tan of Singapore went to the University of Bristol in 2014, where he witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding for healthcare technology research collaboration with Nanyang Technical University Singapore.
The most unusual academic event to be staged during a state visit occurred in 1996, when a ceremony was held in London to confer eight degrees on Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who received marks of distinction from the universities of Bristol, Cambridge, London, Nottingham, Oxford and Warwick, as well as De Montfort and Glasgow Caledonian.
Cultural institutions
The programme usually included a visit to one or more of the United Kingdom’s principal cultural institutions. Venues typically included locations such as the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Tower of London. Some heads of state saw the work of the Royal Academy, the Royal Ballet School and the Royal College of Music, and there were trips to the Royal Society, as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London Zoo, and the Science Museum.
A few awards were presented to the visitor by institutions on these occasions. Examples of this practice include the diplomas as honorary fellows of the Royal Institute of Public Health that were conferred before the first world war on Kings Haakon of Norway and Gustaf of Sweden and Raymond Poincare of France. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy received the gold medal of the Numismatic Society of London in 1903, while King Amanullah of Afghanistan was made an honorary member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1928, and more than a century later Tony Tan of Singapore was presented with the King Charles II Medal by Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel laureate and president of the Royal Society.
Arrangements were made to inspect a series of national exhibitions, as in 1924 when the kings of Italy and Romania saw the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, and in the 1950s when Vincent Auriol of France visited the site of the Festival of Britain Exhibition, a venue the King of Denmark toured during his state visit in 1951. The Millenium Dome was included in the agenda for Arpad Goncz of Hungary and Jiang Zemin of China in 1999, and for Queen Margrethe of Denmark in 2000.
There were more personal elements for visitors who returned to their schools at Eton and Harrow, and a few local detours highlighted places that were of significance to English history, as in 1999 when Arpad Goncz of Hungary went to Runnymede and saw the Magna Carta, and in 2014 when Michael Higgins of Ireland visited the birthplace of William Shakespeare. There were some unusual aspects to several visits, as when:
- King Alfonso of Spain saw the uncut Cullinan diamond, and the last French empress, when he came to England in 1905.
- Woodrow Wilson of the United States visited his mother’s home in Carlisle in 1919.
- Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia went to the house where he lived in exile at Bath, and saw a model of himself at Madame Tussauds in 1954.
- King Mahendra of Nepal toured the London Underground in 1960.
- Nelson Mandela of South Africa saw the scene of the Brixton riots in 1996.
Commercial organisations
The heads of state often engaged with the business community and held meetings with senior personnel from financial and commercial entities. They met officers belonging to organisations such as the Bank of England, the Federation of British Industries, and the London Chamber of Commerce, and companies that operated a wide range of activities and at locations that were spread around the world.
The programme sometimes highlighted national infrastructure and power projects, including a tour of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell for Francisco Lopes of Portugal in 1955, and a visit to the Atomic Energy Authority’s installations at Windscale and Calder Hall for Ayub Khan of Pakistan in 1966. There were a few visits to working factories:
- King Hussein of Jordan visited the Aston Martin Lagonda factory at Newport Pagnell.
- Urho Kekkonen of Finland saw the Hawker Siddeley Aviation Works at Hatfield.
- The Grand Duke of Luxembourg and the King of Sweden were shown the operations of the British Petroleum Refinery at Grangemouth.
A more recent event of this kind took place in 2014, when Tony Tan of Singapore visited the premises of Aardman Animation, the Bristol studio that created products such as the Wallace and Gromit films, where he received a briefing on the Singapore English Language Learning Centres run by the British Council in collaboration with Aardman.
Sporting events
The Edwardian visitors routinely spent a couple of days engaged in shooting game at Windsor. The kings of Greece, Italy and Sweden and the German Emperor all shot, and usually had lunch at Cranborne Tower on day one, and at the Fishing Temple at Virginia Water on day two. Shooting went out of favour as part of the ritual and did not appear in any of the Court Circular reports from after the first world war.
The programme for several state visits of Elizabeth II’s reign included trips to sporting venues and events, and in particular football and horse racing. On the football front:
- King Hussein of Jordan attended the semi-final of the World Football Cup at Wembley Stadium in 1966 (in which England beat Germany in the final).
- Fernando Cardoso of Brazil visited the premises of Chelsea Football Club at Stamford Bridge in 1997.
- Arsenal’s ground was chosen as the venue for Aleksander Kwasnewski of Poland in 2004, and Nicolas Sarkozy of France in 2008
- Xi Jingping of China saw the workings of Manchester City’s stadium in 2015, on the same day as he lunched with the lord mayor, and visited the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester.
As regards horses:
- Ibrahim Abboud of Sudan went to Epsom Races in 1964.
- King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan visited the horse exhibition in the riding school of the Royal mews in 1971.
- King Khalid of Saudi Arabia inspected the National Stud, and had lunch with members of the Jockey Club in 1981.
- The Emir of Bahrain saw the West Ilsley Training Stables, and had lunch with the Queen’s racing manager at Highclere in 1984.
- Michael Higgins of Ireland met representatives of the racing industry in 2014.
Some guests opted for activities other than football and horses, as when King Faisal of Iraq visited the Royal Yacht Squadron’s regatta at Cowes in 1956; when King Mahendra of Nepal went deer stalking in Scotland in 1960; and when the Ruler of the United Arab Emirates saw jousting and a display of birds of prey at Chilham Castle in Kent in 1989.
There were more general engagements relating to the world of sport, as when:
- Nelson Mandela attended a reception for the United Kingdom-South Africa Sports Initiative at Lancaster House in 1996.
- Pratibha Patil of India started the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace in 2009
- the London site for the 2012 Olympic Games was seen by the heads of state of Qatar, Turkey and South Africa in 2010-11.
Entertainment
The shooting of game at Windsor was one of several entertainments that were arranged for Edward VII’s guests, and which was matched by trips to see performances at the Royal Opera for Presidents Loubet and Fallieres of France, and the kings of Spain and Denmark.
French presidents went to Covent Garden in later reigns, and gala events were laid on at that venue for some of the early visitors of Elizabeth II’s reign, such as King Gustaf of Sweden, Francisco Lopes of Portugal and the Shah of Iran. Opera seldom featured in any of the later plans.
The Edwardian visitors were also exposed to theatrical performances at Windsor Castle, where King Victor Emmanuel of Italy saw David Garrick by the Wyndham Company in the Waterloo Chamber in 1903, and the German Emperor was exposed to two evenings of theatrical works in 1907.
The arts content of the state visits spanned a wide range of subjects, as guests saw singers such as Caruso and Melba; a performance by the Welsh Choir from Llanelly for the German Emperor, and renditions of Rob Roy for the King of Norway at the Lyceum Theare in Edinburgh in 1962; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the King of Greece in 1963.
Artistic events of this kind were omitted from the majority of state visit programmes that were organised after the 1960s.
Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III
Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.
Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.
Available to order now from the TSO Shop.
About the author
Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.
See also
Demise of the Crown: #1: An introduction
The Order of The Bath: Prime ministerial K.C.B.s
Find out more
Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)
Images
- President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron play table tennis with students at Globe Academy in London, England, May 24, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
- H.M. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh formally greet the President of the Republic of South Africa and Mrs Thobeka Madiba Zuma during the Ceremonial Welcome on Horse Guards Parade, 3 March 2010. (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
- Visit to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park with the King and Queen of Italy, 28 May 1924. (Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2026)
- The Gazette
Publication date
1 April 2026
Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.