An exotic royal love-in (continued): Seeing Harry and Meghan in Fiji will invoke happy memories for the Queen and Philip, writes ROBERT HARDMAN

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As they watch the progress of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their barnstorming tour of the Pacific, the memories must be flooding back for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Because it is in the islands of the South Seas that so many members of the Royal Family have had some of their happiest and most unforgettable experiences – whether being carried through the streets by a Cabinet minister in a grass skirt or travelling in a motorcade with bare-footed, torch-bearing outriders.

It is in the Pacific that the Queen has had her one and only experience of being 'appointed' as monarch.

Even though Fiji is the one place where she has actually abdicated, few of her ex-subjects even seem to have noticed. The region was also home to one of her favourite fellow-monarchs.

So Harry and Meghan must have had plenty of advice ahead of this week's arrival in Fiji. The Queen knows it far better than most major European nations, having paid half a dozen visits. After all, she was Queen of Fiji for the first 35 years of her reign.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured waving to supporters on the balcony of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, Fiji on their arrival there today 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured waving to supporters on the balcony of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, Fiji on their arrival there today 

Today's scenes are reminiscent of the Queen's visit with the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip after her coronation in 1953 

Today's scenes are reminiscent of the Queen's visit with the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip after her coronation in 1953 

Her first trip was in 1953 when she arrived in a liner called the Gothic (Britannia was still being finished), shortly before Christmas. 

Before she reached dry land, she was greeted by a delegation of local chiefs who paddled out to the ship to perform the traditional welcome ceremony with a tabua, or whale's tooth.

Made up of more than 320 islands, Fiji became part of the British Empire at its own request in 1874 (and for the second time of asking, too). 

In other words, it wasn't annexed or invaded, a fact which has always shaped its feelings for Britain and the Crown.

As the Queen and Duke drove around, they were escorted by torch-bearing 'warriors' running alongside the royal Rolls-Royce, rather like those bodyguards who run alongside the limousine of North Korea's Kim Jong-un. 

On subsequent trips, the Queen would arrive in the Royal Yacht, though Britannia's crew could be rather shirty about the traditional whale tooth welcome.

The tribal chiefs would arrive smothered in coconut oil which left terrible stains all over the yacht's decks and carpets.

The Prince of Wales was given a grass skirt to wear by a chief on the South Pacific island of Vanatu on his visit there in April

The Prince of Wales was given a grass skirt to wear by a chief on the South Pacific island of Vanatu on his visit there in April

Prince Harry, 34, is pictured recieving similar gifts on Suva, Fiji with his pregnant wife Meghan Markle, 37, today 

Prince Harry, 34, is pictured recieving similar gifts on Suva, Fiji with his pregnant wife Meghan Markle, 37, today 

Following two military coups in 1987, a local Army officer appointed himself head of state, leaving the Governor-General – the Queen's representative – in an impossible position. So the Queen told him to resign.

As I explain in my new book, Queen Of The World, Margaret Thatcher was appalled, warning the Queen that this amounted to an abdication. 'Which it was!' the Queen's private secretary, Sir William Heseltine, told me, adding: 'I got a swing of the handbag.'

However, the British government could not formally advise her in her capacity as Queen of Fiji. With a heavy heart, the monarch decided it was time to go.

Yet, something strange happened. Though the Queen was no longer head of state, Fijians continued as if she was.

They kept her on the coins and banknotes and her picture remained on the walls of government buildings, where it remains today. It was not until 2012 that they finally removed her face from the currency. 

Harry at on a stage as he was given the whale's tooth, a sign of wealth, in the vakasobu, before he were given kava, a drink made from a mashed plant root in the yaqona vakaturaga

Harry at on a stage as he was given the whale's tooth, a sign of wealth, in the vakasobu, before he were given kava, a drink made from a mashed plant root in the yaqona vakaturaga

During a visit to Suva in 1982 the Duke of Edinburgh also drank kava, just like that given to Prince Harry today

During a visit to Suva in 1982 the Duke of Edinburgh also drank kava, just like that given to Prince Harry today

The Queen was also pictured drinking the traditional Fijian drink on an official visit to Fiji in October 1982

The Queen was also pictured drinking the traditional Fijian drink on an official visit to Fiji in October 1982

St Edward's Crown is still on Fijian uniforms. Young Fijians still flock to join the British Army and a proposal to remove the Union flag from the Fijian flag has flopped. 

Nor, for her part Queen, has the Queen ever relinquished the title first given to Queen Victoria. So she is still Tui Viti – 'Monarch of the Fijians'.

From Fiji, the Sussexes will move on to Tonga, another archipelago with a special place in British royal hearts – and not just because the state limousine was, until recently, a London cab. 

For Queen Salote of Tonga was one of the stars of the Queen's Coronation in 1953, refusing to have the roof raised on her carriage as she processed through London in the pouring rain.

She wanted the crowds to be able to see her and she was an instant hit with the British public. Later that same year, she laid on the grandest banquet in Tongan history when the Queen sailed in to the capital, Nuku'alofa. 

Every village in Tonga had to provide a specific number of 'pola', vast parcels of pork, chicken, yams, fish and crabs seven feet long and baked in coconut leaves. In total, more than 4,000 pigs were slaughtered for a feast which involved no cutlery and no chairs.

The couple wave from the balcony at the Grand Pacific Hotel where they are attending a reception hosted by the president of Fiji

The couple wave from the balcony at the Grand Pacific Hotel where they are attending a reception hosted by the president of Fiji

It is all still etched on the Queen's mind to this day. During a recent conversation with a Tongan winner of the Queen's Young Leaders Award, her eyes lit up as she talked about that first visit and the exotic orchestra which had serenaded her.

'We had people playing their nose flutes outside the window,' she recalled. 'It was the most extraordinary thing to do. It sounds awfully uncomfortable but they do it rather well.'

The one challenge, she said, had been the lack of chairs at Queen Salote's banquet. 'The only thing I found difficult was sitting cross-legged a lot.' 

One South Pacific island which the Sussexes will not be visiting this time is the Queen's smallest realm, Tuvalu. 

On her arrival in 1982, she and Prince Philip were brought ashore in richly decorated canoes which were then carried up the beach and on through the capital.

Among those heaving the Queen and her canoe through town was the country's finance minister, Henry Naisali, who was dressed in an elaborate grass skirt. As she later joked to him, it was the first time she had seen a haystack wearing sunglasses.

Next time the Sussexes are on tour in the Pacific, perhaps they will also find time to visit Vanuatu, where the residents of one remote village revere Prince Philip as a deity. One day, they will also visit Papua New Guinea.

Known as 'PNG', this is the one country which has actually appointed the Queen as its monarch as opposed to inheriting her.

Ahead of independence from Australia in 1975, it opted for a republican constitution. 

Then the politicians realised that they were never going to agree on a head of state and asked the Queen if she would do the honours for a ten-year interim period. More than 40 years later, there is no appetite whatsoever to change things.

As Harry and Meghan are about to discover – and to the uncomprehending dismay of republicans everywhere – you really won't find a more devoted bunch of royalists than out there in the middle of the South Pacific. 

Queen Of The World by Robert Hardman. Published by Century. £25

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