Visit to Recife – November 1, 1968

The Recife newspaper “O Diário de Pernambuco” gave wide coverage to the Queen’s visit (BNDigital)

Queen Elizabeth II arrived on a Royal Air Force aircraft at the Guararapes Airport in Recife at 16:15. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had landed 15 minutes earlier as he was coming from Mexico, where he had attended the Olympic Games. The royal couple proceeded in a motorcade through the streets of the capital of Pernambuco bound for the Campo das Princesas Palace to attend a reception offered by Governor Nilo Coelho in their honour. Among the distinguished guests were Gilberto Freyre, one of the main cultural interpreters of Brazil, author of the celebrated The Masters and The Slaves; Dom Hélder Câmara, the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, a prominent civil rights advocate; and Marco Maciel, a politician who would later become the Vice President of Brazil (1995-2002). At 18:30, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia to Salvador.