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The Queen will open The Wing centre at Capel-le-Ferne near Folkestone with the Duke of Edinburgh before service at Canterbury Cathedral
11:00, 17 March 2015
The Queen will visit Kent next week to open a new visitor centre and museum, Buckingham Palace has announced.
Her Majesty will visit the National Memorial to the Few in Capel-le-Ferne near Folkestone to open The Wing, a new visitor centre about the Battle of Britain, next Thursday, March 26.
She will be accompanied by her husband HRH The Duke of Edinburgh for the trip to Kent which will also see them attend a service at Canterbury Cathedral.
The Queen will follow in the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother who unveiled the memorial dedicated to airmen when it first opened at Capel on July 9 1993.
She will tour the building in a 45-minute visit to the memorial site at the top of the cliffs meeting some of the remaining Few.
Her Majesty will then see the new Scramble Experience and Geoffrey Page Centre – named after Wing Cdr Geoffrey Page who led the vision to create the new centre – before a flypast by a Spitfire, Hurricane and Typhoon.
She will watch from the balcony of the new Cockpit Cafe which subject to fine weather will mark the end of the visit.
Children from the village’s primary school will complete worksheets about the Battle of Britain.
Work on The Wing which has been built by the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust started in September 2013 after a funding appeal was launched in 2010.
The £3.5 million project features the Scramble Experience exhibit in the port wing and an education centre in the starboard side of the building.
A spokesman for the Trust said: “Trustees and volunteers are thrilled that efforts to bring the Battle of Britain to life with the new Scramble Experience and the Geoffrey Page Centre are being honoured by a visit from The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.
“While members of the public are welcome to attend the event, only invited guests will be allowed inside The Wing and so opportunities to see The Queen will be limited, particularly if the weather is bad.”
The Wing will officially open to the public for the first time at 10am on Saturday, March 28.
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