A tasty anecdote. In the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, her former security officer Richard Griffin recalls an amusing episode a few years earlier when American tourists met the queen and didn’t recognize her. . He narrates the scene for Sky News.
“You must have met the queen!” exclaim two tourists
The Queen is walking around Balmoral, Scotland, near her summer residence, accompanied by her security officer. While walkers are rare here, two American tourists turn up around a bend in the road.
The two groups exchange some usual banalities, without the walkers seeming to realize the real identity of their interlocutor.
“And you, where do you live?” ask the two Americans, in complete relaxation. “In London,” she answers simply, without revealing who she is.
“Do you come here often?” they ask then. “Since I was a little girl, like this for 80 years,” she continues.
“But if you’ve been coming here for 80 years, you must have met the Queen!” the two laymen exclaim, visibly impressed.
The queen becomes a photographer
Playing the game to the end, Elizabeth II humorously replies, “No, but Dick meets her regularly,” pointing to her security officer.
Not suspecting the slightest thing in the world of the incongruity of the situation, the two tourists are delighted. “Wow, how is she?” asks one of them. To which her security officer responds by evoking, under the gaze of the sovereign, her “grouchy” side of her, but also her “good sense of humor”.
Happy with his meeting, the American wants to immortalize the moment. He then grabbed Richard Griffin by the shoulder and handed his camera to Elizabeth II. Undeterred, the queen accepts her mission and improvises a moment as a photographer for the two men.
The Americans leave, beaming, unaware of what has just happened to them. The queen, amused, then launches at her official: “I would love to be a little mouse when I go to show these photos to a friend in the United States. I hope someone tells him!”
Source: BFM TV
