When I was nine, the Queen went on a tour of the country after the Coronation and my brownie pack, in our uniforms, lined up along the side of the road to wave our Union Jacks. I was so impressed I wrote a long letter to the Queen in my best writing and was thrilled to get one back from Buckingham Palace, signed by one of the ladies-in-waiting, thanking me for my letter!
About ten years later, I was a student in Cardiff and was walking back from a day at the beach, hot and sticky in my jeans, through the castle grounds, when I came upon the Queen Mother on a walkabout, as far as I could see, unaccompanied apart from someone following her and generally keeping an eye on things. I really wanted to go and talk to her, but I was so scruffy and smelly after a day at the beach, that I didn’t feel I could.
More recently, Prince William opened the new China Centre at the Oxford college where my husband used to work, and we were invited and he said “Hello” to us. He is very tall! The Duchess was supposed to be coming with him, but she was pregnant and sadly, too ill to go with him.
My cousin was out walking on Hampstead Heath once when she lived in London, when she bumped into Princess Anne, who was also out for a stroll. They had a long chat and my cousin was very impressed with her as she was so natural and friendly.