The Queen's last visit to Wiltshire
Her Majesty came here in 2020
Last updated 14th Sep 2022
In October 2020 the Queen visited the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at Porton Down to officially open a new facility there.
This was Her Majesty's last visit to Wiltshire.
Accompanied by her grandson, Prince William, she formally opened the new Energetics Analysis Centre.
The Queen met scientists who helped in the response to Covid-19 and those employed in Counter Terrorism and Security, as well as Dstl staff and members of the military involved in identifying the nerve agent and subsequent clear up of the Novichok incident of 2018.
It was the Queen's first external public engagement since the coronavirus forced her into isolation.
Professor Tim Atkins was one of those who had a conversation with the Queen:
"It was an amazing experience, if I recall correctly the sun was shining here in Wiltshire and it was a real honour for this organisation and for all of our staff who she met. She came to open one of our buildings as we have a new science and technology building that she was invited to and then she came and spoke to our staff, who'd been involved in the COVID response.
"The atmosphere was a mixture of real excitement and anticipation and I think you know an acknowledgement that we were really lucky that the Queen had chosen to visit us at that time in particular and desire to make sure that the event went as planned."
It wasn't just people that Her Majesty met, with HRH being particularly interested in one four legged friend:
"One of the things we showed her was a sniffer dog called Max and I remember watching an immediate affection that she had and there was clearly an affinity between her and Max and she really wanted to understand what we were doing with the animals and how we were training them, so she spent a lot of time talking to the staff who do those roles."