A Liverpool pensioner has been regaling tales of the times he spent with The Queen, fondly remembering Her Majesty from when he worked as her butler.
Former farmer Tommy Walsh, who also spent some years working in Australia, progressed to serving royalty after starting a career as a butler at the five-star Mayfair hotel Grosvenor House upon his return from Down Under nearly 50 years ago. He’s still in the industry now and he last served the long-ruling monarch as recently as November 2019, he told the Liverpool Echo.
He vividly remembers the first time he met the Queen, although it probably wasn’t one of the finer moments of his long career. He revealed: “I was standing by a red curtain and up the stair case they came – the Queen, the Queen’s Mother, Princess Diana – and it was all the white clothing and all this jewellery.
“I remember just making some gasping noise and someone pulling the curtain and telling me to shush. They said ‘quiet or go home’ and I have never forgotten that.
“To see that for the first time was something. And I served the Queen many times over the years.”
He recalls the “good laugh” he had with Her Majesty when he last served her just under three years ago. He said it was like “the Queen coming to my house” as the people there were “all friends” and Tommy knew them all.
He said: “When it came to dessert I had a copper skillet, 12 to 15 inches long and wide, with a crème brûlée that had a hard, toffee crust on top. I held it and passed it to the Queen and she said ‘how on earth is one getting to this, how do you do this?’.
“So I said ‘ma’am why don’t you turn the spoon over and then come down and give it a good crack’. So she did and said ‘oh god I knew that was going to happen’.
“I remember doing it and I knew the 12 people in the house. I thought to myself it’s like the Queen just coming to my house, sitting there on the sofa.”
Tommy also said he had forgotten his glasses that night and struggled to poor the coffee due to the cup being lined gold inside. However, the Queen stepped in to help.
He said: “I didn’t have my glasses with me because I got sent there so quickly. I was pouring the coffee and the Queen said to me ‘all the way’.
“You have to be honest – and I am not a shy guy – so I said ‘terribly sorry ma’am, I haven’t got my glasses and I can’t see the coffee in the cup’. She said ‘I will help you’ and she put her hands to the side of the cup and said ‘up, up’ and then moved her hand towards me and said ‘stop’.
“Afterwards she said ‘we will have to do that again when you come back unless you find your glasses’.”
Tommy said it was a privilege to serve Her Majesty. And pride of place in his home is a picture of him and the Queen together, which he said was “wonderful to have”.
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