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Post by Big Blue on Sept 19, 2022 7:05:34 GMT
As she is laid to rest, what’s the closest you’ve been to the late Queen Elizabeth II?
I’m fortunate to have lived on the main road through Ewell into Epsom in the ‘70s and ‘80s so she drove past our house every year. I can still recall the streets filled with people waiting for the car to pass. The drive by stopped at some point in the ‘80s but before that Derby Day was the day to be waved at.
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Post by Roadrunner on Sept 19, 2022 7:33:39 GMT
I saw her at the Royal Show back in the early 90s. She was on the fenced off grass forecourt of the Royal Pavilion and I was about 20 metres away.
I have been much closer to our new king. Some years ago he visited Chipping Norton. Being Churchwarden at the time, I was part of the official meet and greet lineup. We shook hands and exchanged small talk, before heading into the church for a piano concert. Afterwards, when he left, he signed the church visitors' book with my fountain pen, which I had previously put out on a table for him. There was plenty of space on the table and the pen didn't leak. I still have the pen.
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Post by Alex on Sept 19, 2022 8:12:19 GMT
When I studied at Royal Holloway I lived in university halls opposite the Runnymead war memorial and one morning I was late going to work as I was held up by her getting out of the Royal Bentley to pay a visit to the war memorial. Never known someone take so long getting out of a car!
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Post by Boxer6 on Sept 19, 2022 8:13:20 GMT
She passed by the bottom of our road when I was about 3 I think, so no memories other than photos. She was sitting with Phil, and I think Charles, across the arena from us at the Braemar gathering on two occasions. All very relaxed and serene, as I suppose most such 'casual' events are.
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Post by ChrisM on Sept 19, 2022 8:51:11 GMT
I'm not aware of ever being close to her. I went to Windsor once and I've been past Buckingham Palace once on a photo walk so if she happened to have been "in" on those occasions, that's probably the closest I'll have been
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Post by michael on Sept 19, 2022 8:54:03 GMT
I’ve been in Green Park when she was in residence at the palace but I can’t think of being any closer.
My mother-in-law told me she saw her in Glasgow. Apparently the queen was visiting a bus station and she was taken in through a set of doors lined grand with pot plants. While the queen walked through the building, these plants were rushed around the outside to the other set of doors that the queen would emerge from.
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Post by PG on Sept 19, 2022 8:54:37 GMT
Bit like Jeff really - my family lived in Epsom from me being 4 years old. As a child, I remember my mum walking us to the War Memorial on Ashley Road (10 minutes from our house) and we'd all wave as she drove past after the Derby or the Oaks each year.
Mrs PG has met the King (pre-Kingly duties) some years ago when she was Secretary of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders' Associaton and he visited the Three Counties Show in Malvern the year it was the associations 125th anniversary.
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Post by ChrisM on Sept 19, 2022 9:31:39 GMT
Mrs PG has met the King (pre-Kingly duties) some years ago when she was Secretary of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders' Associaton and he visited the Three Counties Show in Malvern the year it was the associations 125th anniversary. There has to be a joke in there somewhere............ |
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Post by Alex on Sept 19, 2022 10:36:50 GMT
I'm not aware of ever being close to her. I went to Windsor once and I've been past Buckingham Palace once on a photo walk so if she happened to have been "in" on those occasions, that's probably the closest I'll have been It's weird to think that I walked past Buck Palace just the day before she died and everything was as it ever was with lots of foreign tourists taking photos and as ever I just wandered on past on my way back to Victoria Station not thinking that the next day it would have a new resident for the first time in 70 years. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2022 15:26:05 GMT
Quite close, a few feet, dismounted during the silver jubilee event in Sennelager. Some of those taking part did meet her on the day but considering how many of us there were it was never going to be a big number.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 19, 2022 20:58:41 GMT
My school was founded by Royal Charter and the reigning monarach holds the slightly odd title of “Visitor”. She came to “visit” the school when I was there in the early 1990s to inaugurate some new building or other. We all had to stand to attention in the central quadrangle by the chapel whilst she did her walk about. She passed by a few feet away but I was not one of those selected for a hello.
Apart from that, I’ve seen her pass by a few times at Royal Ascot.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Sept 20, 2022 7:38:43 GMT
I can't recall ever being that near to the Queen, but then again I 've never really gone out of my way to attend any event she was at.
When they opened the Metro system on Tyneside my dad ran Balfour Beatty in the NE and got to stand in line at Gateshead station and shake her hand (too vigorously, apparently).
Afterwards my parents got to lunch with the Queen at the Civic Centre with other invited guests. Northumbrian lamb was the main course, with California peaches to follow. My mum always said the Duke of Edinburgh looked really old, and this was about 1980.
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Post by johnc on Sept 20, 2022 8:15:26 GMT
I was part of a group of school children who met her when she arrived in Helensburgh on her way to open something new at Faslane. We were more waved at than anything else!
I was also a guest at a Garden Party at Holyrood but those who were introduced to her were a very select band and I wasn't one of them!
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Post by PetrolEd on Sept 20, 2022 8:21:41 GMT
Never met the queen or been anywhere near her. I've seen the Duke of Eddie on a number of occasions at various sporting events. Same with Charles and Anne.
My mum used to be invited to events every time a Royal was in Paris as she ran the British and Commonwealth Women's association when she lived there. Never invited me however!
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Post by Tim on Sept 20, 2022 12:37:17 GMT
I was at the Royal Tournament at Earls Court in approx 1978 so assuming she was there as well then I was in the same arena. Don't recall actually seeing her though.
Was she at the 150th anniversary of steam parade/exhibition in 1975? I went through all the trains possible at Shildon and was in a field to watch the parade of various trains.
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Post by Big Blue on Sept 20, 2022 14:00:16 GMT
I was at the Royal Tournament at Earls Court in approx 1978 so assuming she was there as well then I was in the same arena. Don't recall actually seeing her though. Was she at the 150th anniversary of steam parade/exhibition in 1975? I went through all the trains possible at Shildon and was in a field to watch the parade of various trains. I think there is a more worrying aspect to this post than the near presence of the Queen...  |
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Post by Stuntman on Sept 20, 2022 21:02:54 GMT
She visited Cheltenham Ladies College in about 2005 and I was working in the building across the road. I saw her from the window, about 15 metres away. She was wearing green.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Sept 21, 2022 5:30:00 GMT
I was at the Royal Tournament at Earls Court in approx 1978 so assuming she was there as well then I was in the same arena. Don't recall actually seeing her though. Was she at the 150th anniversary of steam parade/exhibition in 1975? I went through all the trains possible at Shildon and was in a field to watch the parade of various trains. I think there is a more worrying aspect to this post than the near presence of the Queen... The fact that anyone would voluntarily go to Shildon being the main one. |
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Post by Tim on Sept 21, 2022 7:42:12 GMT
I think there is a more worrying aspect to this post than the near presence of the Queen... The fact that anyone would voluntarily go to Shildon being the main one. I was 5 years old, I deny any responsibility for either accusation  |
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Post by LandieMark on Sept 21, 2022 8:01:35 GMT
The museum there is actually well worth a visit. The rest of the place is a shithole, I grant you.
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Post by woofwoof on Sept 22, 2022 18:44:07 GMT
Many years ago when I was a boy my mam took me to Eston to watch the Queen drive through, hubby may have been with her. I think they were either opening a new road or it was something to do with the nearby massive Wilton ICI plant. The speed limit was 30mph but they must have been doing way more than that as they sped though. I suppose we must have been within 10 ft of them or quite possibly closer as they were on our side of the road. She waved, which was nice of her. I always remember it being on the news and them saying that there was one injury when a woman fell over and broke her nose.
Reading that back it's such an interesting story I can't think why I haven't told more people.
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Post by rodge on Sept 22, 2022 20:51:17 GMT
As a foreigner, the closest I’ve been is outside Buckingham Palace when she was inside.
In terms of us being in the same circle, I have a friend who was at a garden party at the Palace and another who was awarded a CBE about 9 years ago.
I was about 20 feet from Princess Anne when I was in Edinburgh as a teenager.
By the way, the friend who got the CBE was surprised and humbled to get it, and when some of the in-laws came around, they immediately started talking about how it wasn’t as good as someone else’s they knew who had received an MBE…
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Post by Big Blue on Sept 23, 2022 12:16:51 GMT
As a foreigner, the closest I’ve been is outside Buckingham Palace when she was inside. In terms of us being in the same circle, I have a friend who was at a garden party at the Palace and another who was awarded a CBE about 9 years ago. I was about 20 feet from Princess Anne when I was in Edinburgh as a teenager. By the way, the friend who got the CBE was surprised and humbled to get it, and when some of the in-laws came around, they immediately started talking about how it wasn’t as good as someone else’s they knew who had received an MBE… 😆 I’ll see your Royal flush and raise you a pair…… |
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Post by ChrisM on Sept 23, 2022 19:13:23 GMT
I have a cousin who was awarded the MBE many years ago; at the time she lived in Wales as did her business partner who was also awarded the MBE at the same time (it was for their work in the community). My cousin was accompanied by her mum (my aunt, sadly now deceased) and my dad had the honour of driving them through the gates of Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen. I recall being told that there was a very prominent female athlete at the "do" who was also being honoured at the same ceremony along with several dozen others. Said athlete was full of herself and absolutely certain that she would be called in as one of the first to be honoured, and was therefore very deflated when my cousin and partner were called in ahead of her. Her Majesty had been well briefed about the work that my cousin and her partner were doing and they apparently had a very pleasant conversation for several minutes.
Even now I am one of a very few who address letters/cards to my cousin as Ms Hall MBE, and yup she's my relative whose dad (my uncle) was named Albert Hall
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Post by Stuntman on Sept 27, 2022 7:58:43 GMT
Name and shame the female athlete - I may know them, or know of them and how they behaved generally...
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Post by PG on Sept 27, 2022 11:46:30 GMT
I discovered today something I never knew about Mrs PG. She accompanied her parents to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party when she was 19. Her dad was President of the British Numismatic Society at the time and the invite included "unmarried daughters over 18". Clearly a forgotten throwback to when you would parade your unmarried daughters at such functions to find them a suitable match. She didn't get near the Queen, nor have a suitable rich young man found for her, but the gardens were very beautiful.
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Post by Tim on Sept 27, 2022 12:02:07 GMT
One of my Aunts and her daughter were at a garden party about 15 years ago - the photo of them in the gardens takes pride of place in my aunt's living room!
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Post by ChrisM on Sept 27, 2022 19:00:49 GMT
Name and shame the female athlete - I may know them, or know of them and how they behaved generally... It was a long time ago and I'm not 100% certain but I think her first name may have been Sally |
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Post by woofwoof on Sept 27, 2022 19:44:39 GMT
I discovered today something I never knew about Mrs PG. She accompanied her parents to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party when she was 19. Her dad was President of the British Numismatic Society at the time and the invite included "unmarried daughters over 18". Clearly a forgotten throwback to when you would parade your unmarried daughters at such functions to find them a suitable match. She didn't get near the Queen, nor have a suitable rich young man found for her, but the gardens were very beautiful. She's lucky Andrew wasn't there. |
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Post by Roadrunner on Sept 27, 2022 19:53:14 GMT
Name and shame the female athlete - I may know them, or know of them and how they behaved generally... It was a long time ago and I'm not 100% certain but I think her first name may have been Sally Gunnell? |
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