Queen Elizabeth II oozes confidence and happiness on royal tours, yet the UK’s longest-serving monarch is expected to adhere to traditions and behaviour codes. This may mean while she is always friendly, Britons may not get to know the real Queen should they meet her face to face. Prince Philip’s wife also travels with a significant entourage on hand. Yet while her smiles and warm demeanour are no doubt genuine, a secret element of her conduct has come to light.
Royal author Sarah Bradford has detailed just what happens on excursions on the Queen’s yacht, Royal Britannia, when the official meetings are over for the day.
In her book Queen Elizabeth her Life In Our Times, she wrote how the monarch’s “friendliness” came to the fore.
Sarah quotes David Owen, the foreign secretary in Callaghan’s Government, who wrote: “On Britannia, when the last guest goes, the Queen kicks off her shoes and tucks her feet under her skirt on the sofa and talks about the people who have been there that evening in a vivacious way – the face lights up and she becomes really attractive – so you realise how much is kept under control.
“She gets confidentiality from people because they are treated in such a welcoming and considerate way.”
Sarah detailed the Queen’s comfort with her team and family was in a hilarious incident with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.
She quoted author Susan Crosland, who stated: “On one occasion when Philip was sounding off about something, the Queen said to him quite sharply, ‘Oh Philip, do shut up.
“‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
“When Britannia ran into a Force 9 gale two days out of Bermuda, en route to Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, the Queen exhibited great aplomb at dinner when most of the party, including her husband, were ashen faced.”
After the seasickness struck, she later quipped she had “never seen so many grim faces” around the table.
Meanwhile, although the Queen’s banter is clear, her hidden fear on royal excursions has come to light.
The monarch does not enjoy the process of travelling to far-flung destinations, according to royal biographer Robert Hardman.
In his new book Queen of the World, he told how Prince Harry’s grandmother is “famously stoical” about the dangers of royal life while on excursions.
He added: “However, she (the Queen) has never been a great fan of air travel.
“If St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, can afford any extra protection then so much the better.”
He emphasised the royal’s distaste for jetting away in a plane citing support from the comments of her former royal photographer, Reginald Davis, who covered many of her early royal tours.
