Queen’s Instagram debut is #notfake
Five years ago, one of the Queen’s technological landmarks came unstuck when she posted her first tweet at the Science Museum in London, only for it to emerge that she had done no such thing.
A palace aide had done it for her.
Yesterday, in a seeming attempt to right past wrongs, the monarch returned to the museum and posted her first picture on Instagram.
A royal aide, aware of the duplicity of 2014, said that this time the Queen really had done it herself.
This was confirmed by Sir Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum, who stood anxiously next to the Queen as she removed one of her long black gloves to touch the ‘‘share’’ button on an iPad screen. ‘‘Ah,’’ he said a moment later, as the post appeared on a screen on the wall.
‘‘It has worked perfectly.’’ He admitted later that it had been nerve-racking. ‘‘She definitely sent it, because my heart didn’t beat for two seconds!’’
On the previous occasion, the Queen seemingly sent her tweet on an iPad in front of an audience. It was later revealed that it had been sent from an iPhone.
Her Instagram post was an image of a letter sent to Prince Albert in 1843 by computing pioneer Charles Babbage.
She wrote: ‘‘Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert. Charles Babbage, credited as the world’s first computer pioneer, designed the Difference Engine, of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype.’’
Blatchford said: ‘‘She has seen more technological change than any of us can imagine.’’
– The Times