Children’s charming chant that made Queen chuckle
HER Majesty was told she was “the best queen in the world” by young admirers yesterday.
The Queen was all smiles as she was handed flowers and greeted by hundreds of local schoolchildren during a visit to open homes for war veterans.
And the 93-year-old monarch chuckled when a group of youngsters chanted: “You’re the best queen in the world.”
The Queen also met Second World War pilot Ken Souter, who filmed the flying scenes in the The Dam Busters film.
“She’s a sweet little thing, isn’t she?” said an impressed Mr Souter afterwards. “She still has quite nice teeth.”
The Queen, wearing a cornflower blue Angela Kelly outfit, went to open 70 new homes on the Haig Housing development in Morden, south London.
Mr Souter, who has lived on the estate for 25 years with his Swedish wife Birgitta, 78, brought along the special birthday card he received from Her Majesty in June when he turned 100. “Did it come on time?” she asked.
One his three sons, Christian, 48, told her it had arrived a couple of days early. He said afterwards: “She said, ‘Well good. I’m glad to hear that.”
The Queen was on her first official engagement outside Buckingham Palace since returning from her long summer break at Balmoral.
“She is a truly amazing lady. It was an honour to meet her on her first day back on public duty,”Mr Souter said.
The Sunderland-born pilot flew Hurricanes in North Africa during the war before working as a test pilot. He re-enlisted in Bomber Command in 1951 to fly Avro Lincolns, assisting in the Malayan Emergency.
When the squadron returned to Britain in 1954 he was asked to lead and recruit a team to fly four mothballed Avro Lancasters in scenes for the celebrated film about the 1943 Dam Busters bouncing bombs raid.
Filming in the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire and above Lake Windermere, Mr Souter flew so low his propellers whipped up spray.
“At times we were flying 20 or 30ft above the ground. It felt like zero feet,” he said.
Mr Souter later flew executive jets for businessmen including the Rothschilds and Lord Forte.
The Queen also met Invictus Games silver medalist Dan Phillips, who uses a wheelchair after being injured in Afghanistan in 2012.
He said: “I was a young lad that grew up on a council estate, snotty nose, holes in my shoes... For somebody like that to get to meet the Queen is brilliant.”
The monarch also chatted to veterans who completed a 100-mile walk from Ypres to London last year, to mark the centenary of the Armistice.
She has been patron of Haig Housing, the UK’s largest military housing charity, since 1952.