James Milne (1960) The recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II led me to remember my very tenuous connections to the Royal Family during my working life. I consider myself very lucky to have met the late Queen, the late Queen Mother and Prince (now King) Charles. I met Queen Elizabeth in 1983 when she awarded me my MBE for service during the Falklands war. My memories of that day include walking up the steps towards the Throne Room and wondering about the statues lining the stairs. Looking more closely I realised they were troopers of the Household Cavalry! After what seemed like an age in a long queue it was time for my award. The Queen asked me what I did during the Falklands – I replied ‘I drove a desk in the Ministry of Defence Main Building. A smile and a ‘well done’ in response followed by a handshake with a gentle but firm push backward indicated that my audience was over. In 1978 I was the Senior Observer of 824 Squadron (Sea King HAS 2) embarked in HMS Ark Royal. This was to be Ark Royal’s last commission before being scrapped. The ship was operating in the Moray Firth close to the Queen Mother’s residence, Castle of Mey. As the Queen Mother had launched Ark Royal in 1950 she had expressed an interest in visiting the ship prior to de-commissioning. The weather on the day of the visit was marginal but the Queen Mother was not to be deterred. Her programme that day is lost in the mists of time, but my recollection is meeting her on the quarterdeck. We were in groups and the Royal party moved from group to group. The 824 Squadron group consisted of the Commanding Officer, me, the Senior Pilot and Air Engineering Officer. The Queen Mother was ushered into our group and started speaking to the CO. However, she may have apparently been speaking to one person, but she was addressing us all at the same time. She brought us all into the conversation. This was an ability I have never seen again in my 80 years of life. The Queen Mother loved helicopters and put this across to us. As the party moved on, I spoke briefly to one of her ladies in waiting. She must have been in her eighties and looked quite frail. She said she wouldn’t have missed this trip for any reason and that she held the UK Helicopter Pilots Licence No 1. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Finally, I met Prince Charles. The occasion was a reception in St James’s Palace hosted by the White Ensign Association. In the late 70s I had a book published by Maritime Books entitled Flashing Blades Over the Sea which recounted the history of Fleet Air Arm helicopters from the early days to 1976. Prince Charles had been kind enough to write the foreword for my book. I never had the chance to say thank you personally. To cut a long story short I hijacked a conversation with the Prince to remind him of his agreement to write a foreword and to say thank you. To my amazement he said he did remember the book and thanked me for my thanks. The photo above shows me buttonholing the Prince with a copy of the foreword he wrote – just in case he had forgotten. David Riddick (1961) I never actually met the Queen but during my ten years at Horse Guards where I was in charge of security of the military within the M25 and Windsor, it was part of my job to run the Ops Room on all state occasions. One Birthday Parade, at 30 seconds after 1.00pm, the Major General came on the radio saying “Her Majesty wants to know where her Air Force is.” They should have been overhead doing the flypast. I rang Air Traffic Control and asked where the flypast was. They replied that they knew all about it and were expecting them at 5.00pm; I responded by saying that it was probably now cancelled. I informed the Major General who got the message to the Queen on the balcony. As a result an Air Vice Marshal was subsequently ordered to be present at Buckingham Palace on the Queen’s official birthday to assure HM that the RAF had not forgotten, and I was now a recipient of the RAF Op Order. Another Birthday Parade. my first task was to ring the Met Office for the weather forecast for Horse Guards Parade at 11.00am. They told me that it would be raining very heavily all morning. I rang the Palace and suggested that the Birthday Parade be delayed to the afternoon (Plan B). After a while, the Palace rang me to say that Prince Philip had said that the last time they went to Plan B the sun was shining at 11 o’clock and they would stick with the original timings. The weather forecast was more than right, the parade ground was flooded and Prince Philip, sitting on a horse wearing a bearskin that became heavy with the rainwater, suffered as a result. That was the last time he rode on a Birthday Parade. When President Putin came on a state visit, his plane was 10 minutes late arriving at Heathrow. Prince Charles, who was on hand to meet him, could not hurry him up and he was 20 minutes late leaving Heathrow. I informed the Major General who was already on the dais together with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Blunkett and the Lord Lieutenant of London. The police helicopter then reported that the traffic was heavy and there was no chance of the police motorcyclists accompanying Putin’s car getting him to Horse Guards Parade any quicker. I rang the Palace, informed them that Putin would be 20 minutes late arriving at Horse Guards Parade and suggested that the Queen delayed her departure from Buckingham Palace. I got a reply to say that Her Majesty had been informed but she would leave as originally planned. I informed the Major General. The Queen duly arrived and had a few words with those on the dias, but then spent the remaining minutes talking to David Blunkett’s dog! Richard Taylor (1951) Joining Abingdon for the summer term 1942, I was under WM Grundy, who had also been the Head during the time of my father and his three younger brothers! During 1951-52 I had a gap year, 1952-55 I attended Reading University, 1955-57 I undertook National Service in the RAF, where I completed Pilot Training and in 1957-88 I flew with BOAC/BA. I was one of the pilots on the crew of the BOAC Boeing 707 that flew the Queen and Prince Philip from Perth to Fiji, via Sydney, on their way home from the Royal Tour of New Zealand and Australia in 1963. We did, of course, meet her briefly. We had, in the few days immediately before the flight, attended receptions both at Government House in Perth as well as on the Royal Yacht, moored in Fremantle Harbour. Another crew flew them from Fiji to Vancouver and a third crew brought them home, from Vancouver to London. Peter Annett (1969) In 1977, I was involved in the London Celebrations Committee for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. We organised the planting of a tree in the Victoria Tower Gardens (the recent site of the snaking queue of those waiting to pay their respects to Her Majesty). On the day, the great and the good waited for her arrival. Despite our familiarity with ceremonial tree planting, the thought of meeting Her Majesty fogged the mind. When asked what the tree was (a hybrid oak) she then asked a similarly easy question – from which parent species did it derive? There was an embarrassing silence as experts stumbled and mumbled before Her Majesty was provided with the answer – it was a clone of the Turkey and Cork Oaks. She was direct, probably knew the answer but had a supportive aura and warm smile. The moral: always be prepared for the obvious unexpected! n G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 1 3 In Spring 2022, Abingdon's Art Department ran a Jubilee Stamp Competition to celebrate the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
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