The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh hosted King Olav V of Norway on his State Visit to Scotland on this day in 1962, following a visit in 1959. The British and Norwegian Royal Families are very closely related through the British-born Queen Maud of Norway, a sister of the Queen’s grandfather, King George V. The Queen and Duke’s State Visit to Norway in 1955 was the first outgoing State Visit of her Reign, followed by another in 1981, and one in 2001, and they hosted the Norwegian Royal Family in 1959, 1962, 1988, 1994, and 2005. The Royal Family have also frequently holidayed with the Norwegian Royal Family, most notably in 1969.
King Olav was received by the Duke of Gloucester as he arrived on the Norwegian Royal Yacht Norge in Leith, before travelling to Edinburgh, being welcomed with a grand Procession up the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
King Olav was installed as a Knight of the Order of the Thistle, at St. Giles Cathedral, and also received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh at Usher Hall from the Lord Provost, while State Banquet at the Palace of Holyroodhouse was not publicly photographed.
The Queen (wearing Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara) and the Duke of Edinburgh joined King Olav at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, on the second evening of the State Visit, which may be the same night the King and the Duke were pictured leaving St. Giles Cathedral.
The Queen Mother (wearing the Greville Tiara) and Princess Margaret (in the Lotus Flower Tiara) were pictured arriving for a Return Banquet on board the Norwegian Royal Yacht Norge.
