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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Millie Cooke

No 10 forced to apologise over John Major’s ‘improper’ birthday message to Queen Mother, new files reveal

John Major No 10 Queen Elizabeth II Downing Street the National Archives
Prime Minister John Major (Rebecca Naden/PA) - (PA Archive)

Downing Street was forced to issue a grovelling apology after prime minister John Major’s birthday telegram to the Queen Mother was addressed in an “improper manner”, newly-released government files have revealed.

The Queen Mother’s private secretary Captain Sir Alastair Aird telephoned No 10 demanding an explanation as to why the 1994 birthday greeting had been “incorrectly addressed”, papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, show.

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