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1 August 2002: The Queen visits a Sikh temple and a space museum during a day in Leicester and Derby
Diversity of faith, sport and scientific success were the themes of the second day of The Queen's Jubilee visit to the East Midlands, Thursday, 1 August 2002.
The visit began with a walkabout in the centre of Leicester on the way to a sporting statue erected in 1997. There The Queen and Prince Philip met representatives from the county's sporting teams, including the Leicester Tigers rugby team, Leicester City football club, Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Leicester Ladies Hockey Club.
While at the statue, The Queen presented awards for sporting excellence to local athletes 13-year-old hurdler Nafalya Francis and canoeist Jamie Oughton, 15.
Continuing the walkabout, The Queen and Prince Philip saw colourful displays and activities representing Leicestershire life, including dancers from a Caribbean carnival group, a bhangra band and local youth organisations.
The Queen travelled on alone to the town's Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sikh Temple, where the Royal party took off their shoes and wore hats to enter. The Queen was greeted by Inderjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, and Resham Singh Sandhu, chairman of Leicester Council of Faiths.
After a visit to the prayer hall, The Queen went upstairs to the museum to meet members of the Sikh community and view a model of the Golden Temple. As a Jubilee gift, The Queen was presented with a ceremonial sword.
While The Queen visited the museum, Prince Philip toured Leicester Cathedral, which dates back nearly 900 years. After being shown around by the provost, the Very Reverend Vivian Faull, His Royal Highness opened the new visitor centre.
Prince Philip rejoined The Queen at the city's National Space Centre, a visitor attraction dedicated to space science and astronomy, where they toured the five themed galleries. In the Space Gallery The Queen was introduced to Dr. Helen Sharman. The first Briton in space, Dr. Sharman took part in a Russian Soyuz mission to space station Mir in 1990.
Together The Queen and Dr. Sharman spoke via a live satellite link-up with NASA in Houston, Texas, to future British astronaut Dr Piers Sellers. Sussex-born, Dr. Sellers was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1996, and is in training for flight STS-112 to carry out repair work to the International Space Station.
The Duke of Edinburgh met a team working on the Beagle 2 Mars expedition, a British project. Beagle 2 will ride to Mars as part of the European Mars Express mission, due to lift off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on 23 May 2003. Professor Alan Wells of the University of Leicester, which is involved in the project, showed His Royal Highness a model of Beagle 2.
Towards the end of the tour, the Royal visitors were introduced to Kevin Yates, Project Officer of the Near Earth Objects Information Centre based at the National Space Centre. Mr. Yates showed The Queen and Prince Philip a range of meteorites that have landed on Earth in recent years.
The tour was followed by a reception and lunch, during which The Queen made a speech to the 200 invited guests.
Her Majesty said it had been a pleasure to meet people from different communities: "Here in Leicester, you have a reputation for successful cultural integration, producing a distinctive city. All-faith communities are part of what it is to be British in 2002."
After lunch The Queen and Prince Philip travelled north by car to Derbyshire. Arriving at Pride Park, Derby, home of Derby County Football Club, they drove around the perimeter track waving to the 25,000 capacity crowd. The pitch was filled with 18,440 golden balloons - one for every day of The Queen's reign - which were released as Her Majesty entered.
Once the Royal party was seated, the 'Derbyshire Celebrates' festival began. A series of cavalcades passed before The Queen, each representing a different decade of her reign in the life of Derbyshire. Over 2,000 performers took part.
As The Queen left the Royal box an hour after her arrival, compere Tim Brooke-Taylor, the Buxton-born actor, led a rendition of 'Land of Hope and Glory'. The performers on the pitch made a path for the Queen to walk along on her way to the stage, stopping to speak to some of them.
Derbyshire yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur welcomed The Queen to the stage and invited her to speak.
Wearing a cape to protect her from the persistent rain, The Queen declared: "Congratulations to all of you who took part and I extend my gratitude to all of you here today for your loyal support on this Golden Jubilee year. Thank you for inviting Prince Philip and me to Derbyshire today."
The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were driven around the stadium to acknowledge the crowd before leaving the ground.
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