I am a Royalist! I enjoy bragging to my foreign friends that we have a unique tourist attraction which is the Royal Family! As the monarchy seems to be more open with social media and the press, we get some intimate glimpses of their lives, which was kept under wraps in the generations before me. Although there is some scandal attached to some of the family members, it is easier to identify them all as real people with the same feelings as us enjoying happy family events as well as enduring tragedy, which happens in every family.
When I was very young, I enjoyed cutting out any newspaper article or photos of the Royals and I would glue them into my scrap book…probably a dying hobby now as we have easy access to see them on TV and in colour too!
Princess Anne is one of my favourites..she is a few years younger than me but I have watched her grow up and she has always been hard working and straight forward in her attitude.
It was a special honour to meet her when I worked with my African children’s choir at St James Palace in London.
I had been told by the American leader of the group, that I couldn’t get in without my passport. As I was the only English person in the party, I was determined that I would get in without showing MY passport! They were all amazed when they saw that my identification was my bus pass…and it worked!
We were ushered into a big room (Little did I know that 15 years later it would be the same room that King Charles signed the papers of acclamation on becoming the new monarch) and we waited for Princess Anne to appear, which only took a few minutes as she entered in a lovely smart outfit entirely of green.
One of my little boys whispered to me “Auntie she is old.!” and I explained that princesses do get old, like us. The children were not familiar with Western culture and had only seen the cartoon film of Cinderella when we had camp break on tour, so that they imagined that all princesses were like the fairy tale!
Then my little boy, Bonny, continued….”Auntie she looks like a grass-hopper!” I replied “Bonny you must be quiet or we will all be thrown in the Tower!” Needless to say ….that also required a lot of explaining about British History!!
Story by Joyce Shaw
Image Credit: Licence from CC BY 4.0 from New Zealand Government, Office of the Governor-General – Image Credit: Licence from CC BY 4.0
