Queen Elizabeth & The Rowdy Newfoundlanders

The very first Canadians that Queen Elizabeth ever met on a trip to Canada as our queen was a rowdy crowd of Newfoundlanders who woke her up in the middle of the night.

It was the end of 1953. Queen Elizabeth was still a brand new queen. Her coronation had been held just a few months earlier, a massive televised spectacle. Ten thousand Canadians travelled to London to be there in person, while many more would listen at home on their radios or tune in on TV. Footage of the event had been rushed across the ocean by British bombers so Canadians could watch it later that same day.

Now it was time for Elizabeth to meet some her subjects in person. Her first Royal Tour as Queen would be the biggest trip of her life, an epic six-month-long odyssey that would make her the first European monarch ever to travel all the way around the planet.

Canada wasn't on the official itinerary, but it would still play a small and vital role…

Airplanes were pretty new and nerve-racking back then; the world's first commercial jet airliner was only a year old. When the Queen took off from England, British and Canadian destroyers followed along in the ocean below. Lifeboats on the coasts were put on alert just in case. It had only been about 30 years since the first flight across the Atlantic. That was still about as far as you could go before needing to refuel. And that fact made the airport in the wee town of Gander, Newfoundland one of the most important airports in the world.

The Royal Air Force would escort the Queen's airliner halfway across the ocean, where the Canadian air force would take over and lead her the rest of the way into Newfoundland. There, her plane could refuel before carrying on to Bermuda — the Royal Tour's first official stop.

It was long after midnight when the plane descended from the dark Canadian sky to land at the Gander airport. By the time it was done fuelling up, it was a bit after 4am. Queen Elizabeth was still sleeping as the plane prepared to take off. She was about to miss out on Canada entirely.

But the crowd of rowdy Newfoundlanders who'd gathered outside the plane weren't about to let that happen. There were hundreds of them who'd showed up in the middle of the night to try to get a glimpse of their Queen. And they weren't going down without a fight.

They began to sing.

In the years since, many people have wondered whether some in that crowd might have had a drink or two before heading to the airport that night. But drunk or not, they seem to have belted out their tune at an impressive volume. The air was filled with a familiar melody. "For she's a jolly good fellow... For she's a jolly good fellow..." Three hundred people all singing their hearts out at four in the morning on a chilly November night. There were chants of "We want the Queen!" Some even called out "It's time to get up!"

And yet, it seemed they'd failed. Officials begged them to leave, to go back home to their beds. And as the ramp was rolled away from the plane, the crowd let out a collective sigh.

But then!

The door cracked open...

Somewhere on board that airliner, the Queen of Canada had been roused from her slumber by the sound of her subjects quite literally singing her praises. And in the few moments left before takeoff, she was going to give them what they wanted.

She appeared in the doorway of the airplane, somehow cheerful and impeccably dressed despite the late hour. Prince Philip was at her side. They smiled and waved to the rambunctious crowd as the throng was held back by scarlet-coated Mounties. Elizabeth even recognized a couple of the officers from her earlier visit to Canada, back when she was a princess. They were waved up the gangplank to say hello. "It's nice to be in Canada again," she told them, "even if only for a short stay."

And then, it was over. The hatch closed shut. The engines roared. And the Queen sailed off into the sky. But that wasn't the last time she'd visit Newfoundland…

Queen Elizabeth travelled more than a million miles over her lifetime. And she visited Canada more than any other country: 22 times during her reign. Six years after that memorable night on the tarmac, she was back in Gander once again.

This time, she had come to open the town's new airport — the one still in service today, the one that half a century later would make new headlines. This time, for welcoming American travellers on 9/11 and becoming the inspiration for the musical, Come From Away.

For the strange story behind the statue of Queen Elizabeth’s great-grandfather that stands in the middle of downtown Toronto, you can watch “The King In Queen’s Park” for free on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JtZ8Kf8_wg&t=296s

For more tales of rowdy Newfoundlanders, you can watch “The Rise of Piracy in Canada”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnnObrS05jc&t=20s