Tube gift for Duchess’s passenger as Royals mark 150 years

Kate, five months pregnant, was given the present as she joined the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at Baker Street Tube station to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the network.

The engagement was the Queen’s first public event in more than a week but she looked well and chatted to senior London Underground managers, train drivers and station staff.

The Queen, who suffered the symptoms of gastroenteritis, had missed a number of engagements since she was first declared ill almost three weeks ago.

London Underground chief operating officer Howard Collins handed Kate the badge and held it against her Malene Birger coat and joked “I’ll make sure I wear it at home”.

Mr Collins said afterwards: “Kate said ‘Oh yes, I’ve seen this before’. She used to travel on the Tube so she probably saw them then.” The badges, available from Transport for London (TfL), overcome the awkwardness often felt by pregnant women of having to ask someone to give up their seat.

The Queen’s first journey on the Tube was in May 1939, when she was 13 years old, with her governess, Marion Crawford, and sister, Princess Margaret.

She last visited a Tube station in February 2010, when she travelled to Aldgate station to view a plaque dedicated to the seven people killed during the July 7 2005 bombings.

Yesterday, Baker Street’s ticket hall was closed to commuters, who had to use side entrances, and Metropolitan line trains were not stopping at two platforms.

The Queen, Prince Philip and Kate met groups of staff including train driver Devon Wordsworth.He said: “After 30 years’ service, it’s a great honour get to shake hands with the Queen.”

Baker Street was part of the first stretch of the Underground which ran between Paddington and Farringdon and opened on January 9 1863.