Queen Sālote had died on 16 December 1965 at 12.15 a.m. at Aotea Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. Her youngest son and his wife were with her, but the Crown Prince and Princess arrived two hours after the Queen died, after their plane was delayed. News reached Tonga through a radio broadcast at 10 a.m. [read more]
Queen Sālote returned to Tonga on 5 October 1953 after attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London. She had become an overnight celebrity in the United Kingdom after refusing to close the hood of the carriage during the coronation procession, and subsequently becoming soaked through due to the rain. Like Elizabeth, she was [read more]
Queen Sālote had left Tonga for the final time on 4 November 1965. She had been diagnosed with lung and bone cancer in 1964, and her sons had urged her to return to New Zealand for more treatment. On 19 October, she returned to the palace one last time. Three days later, Queen Elizabeth II [read more]
In November 1918, the first major disaster of Queen Sālote’s reign happened – the Spanish flu. The ship Talune from the Union Steam Ship Company had arrived in Nuku’alofa on 12 November 1918, and quarantine regulations had not been properly enforced. It had also stopped at Fiji, Western Sāmoa, Vava’u and Ha’apai before arriving in [read more]
Princess Sālote’s mother, Lavinia, died in 1902 when Sālote was just two years old. Her parents’ marriage had been quite controversial as King George had originally been meant to marry Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu, but he had chosen Lavinia instead. With Lavinia dead and in order to appease those who had been offended by his first marriage, [read more]
On 5 November 1919, Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga gave birth to a second healthy son, Prince Uiliami Tuku‘aho. He joined an elder brother, Crown Prince Tāufaʻāhau, and in 1922, they were joined by a third and final brother, Prince Sione Ngū Manumataongo. Shortly after the birth of her third son, Queen Sālote went [read more]
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