|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Royal visit |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On Friday 23 October, Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh paid a private visit to GCHQ, following a visit to Gloucester earlier in the day. The Queen last visited GCHQ in 2004 when she officially opened the new headquarters building. Five years on, her visit was the climax to a week of special events to celebrate the centenary of the intelligence and security services. During the visit, the Royal Party were given a tour of the GCHQ building. This commenced with introductions to six veterans, from the Cheltenham area, who worked at GCHQ’s forerunner, Bletchley Park, during the Second World War. The veterans were: Sir Arthur Bonsall (former Director of GCHQ), Mrs May Stephens, Mrs Edna Gibbons, Mrs Beryl Middleton. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh then followed slightly different programmes. The Queen initially met some of the many volunteers within GCHQ who undertake voluntary and charitable work within the local community. She was then briefed on some of the current operational work that supports military activity in Afghanistan, serious crime prevention and the prevention of terrorism. Meanwhile, The Duke of Edinburgh was presented to staff that provided support during earlier military operations in the Falklands, Balkans, Sierra Leone and Iraq. He then visited a memorial within GCHQ dedicated to members of staff who lost their lives on operational tours of duty. On display within the GCHQ building were exhibits that have been created with the assistance of the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to mark centenary week. These included a time line, which runs the full circumference of the building (quarter of a mile) and highlights the major events that have affected the three intelligence and security agencies over the past 100 years. 26 October 2009  |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
