Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh will pay a short private visit to Malta in November, at the invitation of the Maltese Government.

The British Monarch will be travelling to Uganda for a State Visit during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting that will be held there in November.

The Queen is familiar with Malta. Apart from her state visits, she also lived here as a Navy wife at various times between 1946 and 1953 while the Duke was stationed on Malta as a Royal Navy officer. They used to live at Villa Gwardamangia, which was owned by the Duke’s uncle, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

The two most recent visits of the Queen to Malta were in May 1992 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bestowal of the George Cross to Malta, and in November 2005 during the CHOGM hosted here.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s most notable visit was in 1964 when, in the name of the Queen, he presented the Instruments of Independence to then Prime Minister Dr George Borg Olivier.