Royal Visits to UBC

UBC has hosted visits from various members of Royal families over the past century. The most recent royal visit to UBC took place in 2016 when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the Okanagan Campus] Apart from the British royals, UBC has also welcomed other royal families to visit the campus. Most members of existing royal families play only a ceremonial role. Despite no longer having any political power, royals generate a lot of excitement and fanfare with their visits.

In this post, we have searched the UBC Open Collections and compiled images of members of royal families visiting UBC’s Vancouver Campus in the past century. Here are some of the notable visitors and memorable royal visits.

British royal family

Mary, Princess Royal signing guest book at War Memorial Gymnasium, 1955-10-22

Queen Elizabeth’s visit to UBC, 1959-01-01

Prince Philip reviewing the Seaforth Highlanders, 1962-06-03

Prince Philip and others during royal visit, 1971-01-01

Prince Charles in engineering jacket with Douglas Kenny and unidentified student, 1980-04-01

Walk to the Asian Centre during Royal Visit, 1983-03-09

Queen Elizabeth with Gordon Campbell during Royal Jubilee visit to UBC, 2002-10-07

Dutch royal family

Dutch Prince Bernard arriving at UBC, 1958-01-01

Japanese royal family

Prince Takamado Norihito speaking at opening of Asian Centre, 1981-06-05

Princess Takamado of Japan with Mrs. David Lam and Les Peterson, [between 1990 and 1999]

Spanish royal family

King Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain visit to the Museum of Anthropology, 1984-03

Swedish royal family

King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Sylvia of Sweden at the Museum of Anthropology, 1988-03-18

Queen Sylvia of Sweden during visit to UBC, 1988-03-18

Thai royal family

Visit of Thai Princess Chulabhorn, 1989-05-09

For those serious royal fans out there, other than UBC Archives Photograph Collection, we have also found images of royalty on various occasions from The Chung Collection, MacMillan Bloedel Limited fonds, Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection, Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs and World War I British press photograph collection.

H.R.H. Duke of Connaught’s Visit to Vancouver, Sept. 1912, [1912-09-18]

King Alexander of Greece visiting the British sector on the Macedonian Front, [between 1914 and 1918?]

Official photographs taken on the British Western Front : The King of the Belgians photographed at his headquarters at the front, [between 1914 and 1918?]