Somewhere in America, a hiker has an old holiday snap that captured Queen Elizabeth II’s mischievous sense of humour perfectly.
Her Majesty may have been known as a model of dignity and duty but she had a very human side – and loved nothing better than a good prank.
So when she bumped into a couple from the US near Balmoral who failed to recognise her and asked if she’d met the Queen, she naturally said she hadn’t.
And she then posed for a photo with them so they could take it home – hoping someone would recognise her in it and deliver her gag’s punchline.
Richard Griffin, who was the Queen’s protection officer for over 30 years, said he was out walking with Her Majesty on the hills near the Scottish estate when they met the hikers and she said hello.
“It was clear from the moment we stopped they hadn’t recognised the Queen,” he said.
“The American gent was telling the Queen where they came from, where they were going to next and where they’d been to in Britain.
“He said to Her Majesty, ‘And where do you live?’ And she said, ‘Well, I live in London but I have a holiday home just the other side of the hills.’ Now, the American did know Balmoral was nearby, so he asked if she had ever met the Queen.
“Quick as a flash, she said, ‘I haven’t but Dick here meets her regularly.’”
Mr Griffin said the hiker asked him what the Queen was like. He said: “Because I was with her a long time and I knew I could pull her leg, I said ‘Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times but she’s got a lovely sense of humour.’”
Delighted to have met someone connected to the monarch, the hiker then put his arm around the bodyguard’s shoulder – and asked the Queen if she would take a photo of them.
Mr Griffin said: “Anyway, we swapped places and I took a picture of them with the Queen. We never let on and we waved them goodbye.
“Her Majesty said, ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to friends in America and hopefully someone tells him who I am.’”
The prank was just one of many anecdotes from the Queen’s long reign that capture the humanity behind the crown – her fun personality, feisty spirit and caring nature.
So from scaring the Saudi Crown Prince with her driving to cooking barbecues for her PMs, here are some more magical moments that let us remember her as Elizabeth.
Driving the Saudi Crown Prince
Rather than walk around the Balmoral estate, the Queen suggested a drive when Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah visited in 2003.
Fully aware women were not allowed to drive in the Middle Eastern kingdom, the Queen took the wheel herself after the prince climbed in the passenger seat.
It was a story told by diplomat Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles. He said: “Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.
"His nervousness only increased as the Queen, an army driver in wartime, accelerated the Land Rover along the narrow Scottish estate roads, talking all the time.
"Through his interpreter, the crown prince implored the Queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead.”
Aware of what Putin was
Famously the Queen was a big fan of dogs, especially her beloved corgis.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett, has told how the Queen admired the wisdom of his guide dog when the pair met Russian President Vladimir Putin during an official visit to Britain, again in 2003.
Blunkett said: “The only time I met Vladimir Putin was back in 2003 on an official visit and my then dog barked very loudly.
“I did apologise to the Queen who was obviously hosting. I don’t think I am giving anything away when I said, ‘Sorry your Majesty about the dog barking’.
“She said: “Dogs have interesting instincts, don’t they?’”
Kindness to David Notts
Not only did the Queen possess a razor-sharp wit, but she was also able to empathise and put people at ease with her generosity of spirit.
When war surgeon David Notts was invited for lunch at Buckingham Palace in 2014, after spending six weeks working in war-torn Aleppo, Syria, he experienced her motherly instincts.
David recalled he was struck dumb owing to the palace’s opulence, compared to the devastation of his time in Aleppo.
“My mind instantly filled with images of toxic dust, of crushed school desks, of bloodied and limbless children... My bottom lip started to go,” he said. “I suddenly was unable to speak, I didn’t know what to say to her, it was very difficult. I felt I just wanted to get out. I wanted to run.”
Together they then fed and stroked the corgis under the lunch table. David said: “All the while my anxiety and distress drained away. ‘There,’ said the Queen, ‘that’s so much better than talking, isn’t it?’
“We spent the whole lunch stroking the dogs, we didn’t eat anything. It was quite remarkable. I felt like she was like my mother, and of course she’s the mother of the nation, and she looked on me as someone who needed help immediately.”
Theresa May and the cheese
Meeting the Queen is a nerve-racking experience for anyone, even if you are the Prime Minister.
Theresa May recently recounted a funny moment shared with the Queen, which involved a chunk of cheese.
Speaking in parliament, the Tory MP, who was in charge of the country from 2016 to 2019, explained what happened when she dropped some cheese in the monarch’s presence at a picnic
at Balmoral.
“I had a split-second decision to make,” she said. “I picked up the cheese, put it on the plate, and put it on the table. I turned round to see that my every move had been watched very carefully by Her Majesty the Queen.
“I looked at her. She looked at me and she just smiled. And the cheese remained on the table.”
Chelsea Flower Show joke
The Queen was able to poke fun at her position as shown by one encounter with a herb gardener at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016.
When Jekka McVicar, designer of the St John’s Hospice garden, explained to the Queen that lily-of-the-valley was traditionally used to make poison, she was stunned when the monarch quipped: “I’ve been given two bunches this week.
“Perhaps they want
me dead.”
The Queen and her PMs
Like many in Britain, the Queen enjoyed nothing more than a summer barbecue.
The monarch hosted many an outdoor event at Balmoral but was surprisingly down to earth even known to muck in with the washing up.
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was so baffled by the Queen’s habit of doing it with bare hands, she once reportedly sent her a pair of rubber gloves.
Meanwhile Gordon Brown has told how his sons were stunned by the first words they heard the Queen say after visiting as a family.
“She met my sons for the first time, and they were very young at this time,” he said.
“It was just after lunch and we came out into the courtyard and all her corgis came out with her.
“And suddenly, the first word my children heard from the Queen, talking to her corgis, was ‘shut up!’
“And every time we said, ‘you’ve got to behave yourself’ in the next few months, they said, ‘even the Queen says shut up, we can say that too.”
“And that just showed how human and what a wonderful person she was.”
