Tourist met Queen ..& didn’t know her
Incognito on Balmoral picnic with her guard
A FORMER royal protection officer has recounted the moment the Queen met two American tourists who did not recognise her.
Richard Griffin said he was accompanying the Queen on a picnic in Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, when they met the pair, who were on a walking holiday.
Mr Griffin said: “The Queen would always stop and say hello when she met people.
“It was clear from the moment we first stopped they hadn’t recognised the
Queen – the American gentleman was telling the Queen where he’d come from, where they were going to next, and where they’d been to in Britain.
“I could see it coming, and sure enough, he said to Her Majesty, ‘And where do you live?’ She said, ‘Well, I live in London, but I’ve got a holiday home just the other side of the hills’,” referring to Balmoral.
According to Mr Griffin, the US tourist then asked the Queen for how long she had been visiting the scenic area. When she replied that she had been doing so for more than 80 years, the tourist said: “Well, if you’ve been coming up for 80 years, you must have met the Queen.”
Mr Griffin said: “As quick as a flash she says, ‘Well, I haven’t, but Dickie here meets her regularly’.” The tourist, turning to Mr Griffin, then asked what the Queen is like, to which he replied: “She can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humour.”
He said: “I knew I could pull her leg.” The tourist posed next to Mr Griffin, and, still unaware of her identity, asked the Queen to take a photo of them. Mr Griffin and the Queen then swapped places, he said, and he took a photo of the monarch with the tourists. “We waved goodbye,” Mr Griffin said, “Her Majesty said to me, ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to friends in America. “‘Hopefully, someone tells him who I am’.” Balmoral, bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852, is one of the Queen’s favourite places.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs HER MAJESTY AFTER THEY WAVED TOURIST OFF