Margaret's Date with the Queen

Posted 17 January 2006

Back in the summer I had a phone all out of the blue to ask if I would be willing to accept an invitation from the Queen to a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Year of the Volunteer. Apparently it is not the done thing to refuse such an invitation, so if I didn’t want to go I wouldn’t get the official invitation!

The day came - 3 November - and to Ian's delight we drove through the big black Palace gates in our van! (The van had been well searched outside by police security.)We parked in the inner court yard and we were met by pages who took us inside. The outside steps had small ramps, but the sweeping curved staircase had a platform stair lift and I glided up around the rail. I felt as though I ought to give a regal wave as I ascended, but refrained as I did not want us thrown out before we’d even got in. Once on the main level there was a normal lift up to the reception area.

It was everything you’d imagine a royal palace to be … huge paintings of former kings and queens on the walls, enormous crystal chandeliers hanging from beautiful ornate golden ceilings, velvet and leather sofas and chairs, beautiful (but threadbare in some places), carpets and lots of staff on hand with trays of drinks for us.

The food, though deliciou,s came in tiny bite sized portions and yes, the crusts had been cut off the sandwiches.

Then without any announcement or fuss, the Queen appeared and moved around the room chatting to various groups of people. An equerry came over to me and asked if he could introduce me to the Queen; he questioned a bit about my volunteering and then I was chatting to the Queen. She is small, neat and seemed very down to earth. She asked about the numbers involved in our local Teesside group and what we did and as usual I was not lost for words! It wasn’t at all intimidating and seemed a ‘normal’ sort of chat.

After a few minutes she moved on and spent about two hours mingling and chatting with people from all sorts of voluntary groups. There were various other ‘Royals’ around, I recognised the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie and maybe more. There were also celebrities from Coronation Street and other well known faces.

Ian and I had a brilliant day. Although not ardent royalists, we were both very impressed with all that went on; the Queen certainly worked hard and for someone approaching 80 seemed to have lots of energy. We were delighted to have had the invitation, we had a wonderful, memorable day and we were so pleased that ordinary people like us (with no friends in high places!) could take part.

Margaret Jones

MDC Branches

Margaret has worked with Muscular Dystrophy Campaign as a volunteer for over 40 years and is an active member of the Teeside Branch.

For MDC branches