A year earlier, in 1956, the Duke was in Melbourne to open the
Olympic Games.
He took the opportunity to visit Commonwealth countries and
British island territories. These included the Seychelles, Ceylon, Papua,
New Guinea, Malaya, New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, Deception Island,
the South Shetland Islands group, the Falkland Islands, Tristan da Cunha,
St Helena with its memories of Napoleon's exile after Waterloo
Ascension Islands, the Gambia, and Gibraltar.
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the
In 1964, after a visit to Nassau, the Duke toured Mexico. He
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then spent some time on the Galapagos Islands, which became world-famous
as the result of Darwin's extensive exploration of their unique fauna and
flora. It was from his observations of wildlife in this naturally isolated
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sanctuary that Darwin conceived his theory of natural selection.
1
From the Galapagos, the Duke continued onwards to Panama, then
Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent, Barbados, St Lucia, Dominica,
St Kitts, and Montserrat and Antigua.
Since 1950, either with the Queen or by himself in various
roles as the Queen's representative, head of an association such as the
English-speaking Union of the Commonwealth, in a purely private capacity,
or as a servang member of the Royal Navy, the Duke has made 69 visits abroad.
Both 1964 and 1973 are notable years in the Duke's travelling
calendar because he was out of Britain during each of these years for
eight times.
Bis 1964 visits included a trip to Greece to attend the funeral of King
Paul of the Hellenes, an informal visit to Iceland, a few days at Malta
as the Queen's representative at independence celebrations, and a trip
to Morocco as a guest of King Hassan.
/In 1973,