Remembering the Queen’s visits to Cambridge as the nation marks 100 years since her birth

Today, on April 21, 2026, it would have marked the late Queen’s 100th birthday

Today (April 21) would have been the late Queen’s 100th birthday. At the age of 96, Queen Elizabeth II sadly died at Balmoral. Throughout her 70-year-reign it was duty first, and luckily for us in Cambridgeshire, Her Majesty visited the city of Cambridge many times.

The Queen made her first official visit to Cambridge as monarch in 1955. On October 20, 1955, Her Majesty visited the city to open the University of Cambridge’s new Veterinary School, which now sits on Madingley Road. In 1962, the Queen returned to Cambridge to open the Addenbrooke’s Hospital site on Hills Road and in 2013, she returned to open the Rosie Hospital.

In between those years, Queen Elizabeth II made another visit to Cambridge where she opened the Sainsbury Laboratory at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden in 2011.

In 2019, Cambridge residents were eager to catch a glimpse of Her Royal Highness on an official visit to the city. She started her tour with a trip to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Histon where she planted a tree.

On the same visit, she then unveiled a plaque at the Royal Papworth Hospital to officially open it after it had been moved 16-miles from the village of Papworth Everard to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Cambridge was not the only area of Cambridgeshire that was fortunate enough to have been visited by Her Majesty – she also visited places including in Ely, Duxford and Peterborough.

In 1973, Ely Cathedral reached its 13th centenary and Queen Elizabeth II visited the city to take part in the celebrations. She also gave her blessing for Ely to remain a city during the local government reorganisation in the early 1970s.

The Queen visited the centenary show of National Shire Horses Society in Peterborough in 1978.

In 1997, the American Air Museum was hosted by Queen Elizabeth II when the collection at Duxford opened. The museum was rededicated in 2002, in a ceremony attended by former President George H.W Bush and the now King Charles III.