News & Events

We asked, and you sent us your amusing and interesting stories about your brushes with members of the Royal Family in honour of Prince Charles’ visit to campus next week.

Remember, Prince Charles is visiting the Digital Media Zone (DMZ) on Tuesday, May 22, and the AMC Theatres will offer a live broadcast of the visit from 11 a.m. to noon that day. Students, faculty and staff who are interested in attending the live simulcast will be required to show their One Cards to gain admittance to the AMC Theatres. The theatre will open at 10:30 a.m., and Ryerson and DMZ staff will also be taking photos, and posting updates and images to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook so all those interested can follow along.

We’ve selected some stories and have included them below. Stay tuned for more royal coverage and more of your stories over the coming week.

The wedding of Catherine and William

Carly Chalmers and her friend Hannah on the Royal Mall minutes after spotting Will & Kate.

If being on exchange at the University of Westminster in London, England, wasn’t exciting enough, my time living and studying in the U.K. coincided with the royal wedding. When the big day arrived my flatmate and I donned our knock-off engagement rings, our best dresses and headed to a garden party for celebrations. As the ceremony came to a close, we walked through the streets of London down to Hyde Park where the whole city was a party - everyone was laughing, drinking and being merry. As the sun began to set, we decided to take a walk down to Buckingham Palace. Thinking it would be quiet, we were quite shocked to see a fair-sized group patiently waiting, watching the road. About 15 minutes later who should drive by but the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge themselves! Catching a simple wave from them was the perfect end to a royally good day.

 -Carly Chalmers

Meeting the prince

I met Prince Charles 26 years ago at the University of Cambridge. He is the patron of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and I was the recipient of one of their scholarships. Every year, the prince meets all the first-year scholars at a reception at Trinity College. When he came to the Canadian group, each of us took turns introducing ourselves and explaining our program of study. Unfortunately, I made a faux pas when, after introducing myself and telling him that I was working on my PhD in history, I asked him what kind of history he had enjoyed as a student at Cambridge. Apparently, one is never supposed to ask the prince a question, which might explain why he looked a little put out and answered me rather vaguely before moving on.

-Professor Martin Greig, Department of History

Queen Elizabeth visits a computer lab and makes an impression

In 1997, Queen Elizabeth toured my department at the University of Westminster. I was a senior lecturer in Imaging Sciences at the University of Westminster in London, England. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is patron of the University of Westminster and arrived for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Harrow Campus. My role was to take pictures of the Queen using a new (at the time) digital camera. The students and staff were awestruck and often could not present their work when the Queen, her lady-in-waiting and uniformed entourage entered the computer labs, but the Queen is so gentle, so professional and elegant, that she put the students at ease and coaxed answers from them, paying attention to what they were saying. She is an amazing individual. I hope Prince Charles likes the DMZ!

-Professor Abhay Sharma, School of Graphic Communications Management

Meeting the Queen and Prince Philip

I met the Queen and Prince Philip years ago when they visited Toronto and attended a trade show. At the time, I was representing the Grand Theatre in London, Ont. It was a show highlighting Ontario held during the time of Ernie Eves and Isabel Bassett. Both the Queen and Philip were very interested in the young people and their projects and he was bouncing around quite engaged and was often asked to slow down so the Queen could catch up.

The next day, I stood side by side again with the Queen (no Prince Philip) in the Royal York Hotel when we were both exiting to our cars out front. Of course, mine wasn't quite as fancy!

 -Deborah Greenfield-Findlay

A sleepy introduction
Tim Sly has had a few brushes with royalty. Here are a couple…

In 1949, in Malta while I was asleep, my mother was presented to (then) Princess Elizabeth.

In 1979, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and her party had to stop in a corridor in the Royal York Hotel while my nervous wife stooped to clear aside a piece of Canada's birthday cake we had just dropped in the royal pathway.

-Professor Tim Sly, School of Occupational and Public Health

Catching the interest of police

In 1983, the Queen visited the University of British Columbia. I had withdrawn from the PhD program in political science the year before but still worked on campus as a union rep for the CUPE local representing teaching assistants and markers.

Security was very tight and the police presence overwhelming. As the Queen approached on her walkabout, a number of us held aloft signs protesting the British occupation of Ireland. We were quickly surrounded by police, who tried to ensure that the Queen would not set her eyes on the protest.

To this day, I’m not sure who was more upset at the sight of a handful of peaceful Irish protesters: the police or the Queen.

-Mike Burke, Department of Politics and Public Administration

Uncovering royal history

We just moved into our new home this March. The house is approximately 100 years old and we discovered a ceremonial flag from the royal visit from 1939. This little 73-year old flag was rolled up and tucked in between a shelf and the wall in our basement. It is in a fragile state, but I can just picture Torontonians waiting for the royal entourage to visit back in 1939. The image on the flag shows a young King George VI and his Queen consort in 30s style. It seems like a long time ago, and yet, this memento survived.

Coincidentally, I share my birthday with the late Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, and my husband shares his birthday with Charles, Prince of Wales.

-Elsie Nisonen, Donor Relations and Stewardship Manager, Development

Ryerson’s royal connection
Bob Jackson, of the Library, found an interesting item in the September 12, 1860 issue of the Toronto Globe.

The then-Prince of Wales (later Edward the seventh and the great-great grandfather of the present Prince of Wales) toured North America in the late summer and fall of 1860. His tour covered several points in Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritimes and extended into the United States as far south as Richmond, Virginia and west as far as St. Louis.

As part of his itinerary in Toronto, the prince visited the Normal School on what is now the Ryerson campus (site of RAC and the Quad – lamentably, the Normal School was demolished crica 1960 to make way for Kerr Hall).

An excellent book was published in 2004 - Royal Spectacle: the 1860 Visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the United States - by Ian Radforth and documents the tour extensively.

A bit of a stretch, however it could be argued that the event at the DMZ on May 22nd will constitute the second visit by a Prince of Wales to Ryerson.

-Bob Jackson, Ryerson University Library

A royal connection

Prior to joining Ryerson, I was the equivalent of a tenure-track professor at Bath Spa University (U.K.) in which the land was owned by Prince Charles. He visited the beautiful campus several times and took part in our capital planning. He also owned a lovely garden shop in a nearby village which was stocked with a wonderful array of goods. I earned my PhD from the university in 2009 and was their first doctoral graduate.

 -Elaine Lam, director for Business Development and Strategic Planning at The Chang School