King Charles has apologised for the 400-year wait for a reigning monarch to visit Bermuda, during a three-day trip to the British Overseas Territory. Speaking at a garden party at Government House on Friday evening, the King said: “I am told to my amazement it is also the first time in Bermuda’s 400-year history that the islands have received a reigning King.”
The King will conclude his visit by officially launching the UK Space Agency’s Project Nova, an initiative to track space debris. He is scheduled to visit a new UKSA observatory on the island, where he will learn about plans for a global network of telescopes monitoring old satellites, rocket stages, and other orbiting objects.
On his final day, His Majesty will open the new Great Bay Coast Guard Station. There, he will be briefed on the Royal Bermuda Regiment’s Coast Guard’s work protecting territorial waters and marine environment, and view their new unmanned underwater and aerial vehicles. Young people from the Junior Leader programme will discuss their involvement, and the King will award operational service medals to five regiment members.
During his visit, the King toured an exhibition at the National Museum of Bermuda, viewing slavery artefacts including neck irons from the 1500s. He also met youth groups, conservationists, and Bermuda-born Muppets designer Michael Frith. The King received a warm welcome from thousands in St George’s, the former capital.
Raising a toast at the garden party, the King said: “Bermuda, like all the Overseas Territories, is a most cherished and important member of the British family – with a friendship as solid as this so-called ‘Rock’.”
