DESPITE a mini heatwave, the Queen was calm and composed on a special visit to RAF Lyneham in May 1990.

The visit was organised to mark the millionth hour of RAF service that the Hercules had completed as well as the 50th anniversary of the Wiltshire base.

The Queen was met with a kiss from the base’s honorary Air Commodore – her daughter, The Princess Royal, before being taken on a tour of the base by station commander Group Captain Ian Corbitt.

The day was especially exciting for Lyneham Primary School pupil Samantha Wood who was chosen to present the Queen with a posy of flowers.

Samantha, the daughter of Sergeant Thomas Wood, celebrated her seventh birthday on the day she curtseyed in front of the Queen.

RAF spokesman Ted Querzani said of the day: “The visit has been extremely successful, especially with the good weather.

“I thought it was nice the way she spoke to everyone in the hangar and it was much appreciated by people and their families when she walked about.”

After a tour around the base, the Queen then drove to the nearby Church of St Michael and All Saints in Lyneham where the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev John Baker, dedicated a new stained glass window in her honour.

The Queen ended her visit to Wiltshire by watching the climax of a major Army exercise at Everleigh, near Pewsey.

She saw a parachute display with more than 500 soldiers jumping from a Hercules.

The exercise, by Aldershotbased 5th Airborne Brigade, involved 15 Hercules from RAF Lyneham flying in low-level formation with eight of the aircraft dropping heavy equipment at the scene.