A former butler to the king has revealed how the royal family could have marked the late Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.
Grant Harrold, who worked for Charles and Camilla for seven years and now lives in Gloucestershire, said the firm will honor her in a personal and low-key way.
Queen Elizabeth was buried at Windsor Castle’s King George VI Memorial Chapel in the Royal Vault on September 19, 2022, after her state funeral, and would have turned 98 today.
He speculated that the family will likely use today to reflect on memories and time spent with the former monarch.
Harrold revealed that the family is not likely to do anything publicly, other than making a simple toast to Elizabeth at dinner tonight.
Then-Prince Charles, now king, and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, laugh while watching a children’s sack race in Scotland in 2012.
Grant Harrold, who worked for Charles and Camilla for seven years and now lives in Gloucestershire, said she will be personally honored by the firm today.
Speaking to Slingo, he said: ‘They won’t do anything publicly. Privately, I have no doubt they will toast her in the evening. I’m sure we will spend the day reflecting on the late Queen.
Harrold said he “can almost guarantee” the family will leave flowers at his grave to mark what would have been his 98th birthday.
‘Yeah “If you went to Windsor Castle there would very likely be some flowers on the grave sent by family members,” he said.
‘Sometimes on royal anniversaries, flowers are sent to royal graves. It is very possible that there are flowers on the tombstone.
“On that day there will also be sympathizers who want to put flowers on the grave or around the area.”
Harrold, who worked for Charles and Camilla between 2004 and 2011, said Queen Elizabeth had an “incredible sense of humour”, adding that you could never tell if she was serious or joking.
“I used to hear about his sense of humor and the fact that sometimes you couldn’t tell if he was serious or not and he had incredible humor and sometimes he would catch you off guard,” she said.
Harrold then shared a funny anecdote about a time when no one had followed the late Queen to dinner in Scotland one night.
He said: ‘I went to announce the dinner. I went to see her and I walked up and nodded and said “dinner is ready” and there were other guests there.
‘She left the room and looked around the room and no one else had followed her.
Harrold said the late Queen was detail-oriented, “very observant” and “lit up a room” every time she entered. Above: Isabel photographed in June 2022, a few months before her death in September of that year.
‘Of course, royal protocol states that they should continue or at least already be in the dining room and everyone was still in the other room chatting.
‘Then she ran down the hallway and I remember looking over thinking the Queen was running, what do I do?
“So I started running, well I didn’t run because I thought it would be rude to run as a butler, so I jogged into the room and when we got there, he looked around, smiled and I heard the rest of the guests running down the hallway.” to enter.
‘She looked at me and then winked as if to say “how about that?” I thought, “Oh my God, you’re so cool,” and I loved that. Everyone knew she was like that, and then I found out.’
Harrold paid a sweet tribute to the late Queen, saying she was “always very polite” and detail-oriented, adding that she was quick to spot if something had been done incorrectly.
Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, who died a year before her, are pictured during Trooping the Color in 2016 with Kate, William, Charlotte and George.
He said: ‘When they say she lit up a room, you walked into the room and you knew she was in the room.
‘You walked in and you could see her and she was always very polite, very polite, always smiling and making a joke or a comment.
‘Very observant, she paid attention to every detail. She used to get me excited if she was on duty and she was there. For me she was brilliant, it was very exciting.
‘On the observant side, when there was a state dinner or a banquet she inspected the table.
‘You have an army of staff, but she still went around the table to make sure it had been done correctly. She would notice things if something wasn’t right. ‘
Queen Elizabeth II was 96 years old when she died on September 8, 2022. The announcement shocked the world, and many royal fans flew from other countries to London to pay their respects.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners waited in queues for several hours, and some even camped out overnight, to see her lying in Westminster Hall.
Queen Elizabeth II was 96 years old when she died on September 8, 2022. Above: Queen Elizabeth II looks at one of her horses in May 2017.
Harrold said the royal family is likely to leave flowers at her grave to mark the late Queen’s birthday.
More than 29 million people in the UK alone watched his funeral, at which senior royals including Prince William and Kate and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put aside their differences and gathered to say goodbye. of his beloved grandmother.
Queen Elizabeth is remembered for her poise and dedication to the role of queen during her 70-year reign.
On her 21st birthday in 1947, Elizabeth was with her parents and younger sister on a tour of South Africa and gave a speech dedicating her life to the service of the Commonwealth.
She said: “I declare before all of you that my entire life, whether long or short, will be dedicated to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
Queen Elizabeth worked with 15 prime ministers over the course of her tenure, including Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, Liz Truss, who announced her resignation after just 44 days in office.