Queen’s lady reveals kink in folding of the robes

‘We were just told that we were all going on the balcony, which was extraordinary’

IT WAS a peripheral moment that unfolded quietly on the sidelines.

But the Queen’s longtime friend and lady in attendance has admitted that the complicated act of removing and folding Her Majesty’s Robe of State during the Coronation did not go according to plan.

The Marchioness of Lansdowne, 68, revealed that she and her fellow lady in attendance, the Queen’s sister Annabel Elliot, 74, had practised repeatedly, however, in the moment on the big day, as the Anointing Screen was carried out into the Coronation theatre and the opening bars of Handel’s Zadok the Priest began to fill Westminster Abbey, perhaps nerves took over.

Not that anyone in the congregation or even watching in close-up at home would have noticed.

“The folding!” Lady Lansdowne laughed as she relived the moment involving the robe – made for Elizabeth II in 1953 – on Saturday evening. “We practised the folding! Because they are very precious, those amazing trains.

“And the one that the Queen comes in in is a very old, silk velvet and it needs to be incredibly carefully folded.”

She added: “We just practised and practised with the lovely equerry who was taking the weight of it because it was quite heavy. We practised many times. We didn’t do it quite as perfectly today [Saturday] as we did it yesterday [Friday]. It didn’t go on the floor – that’s the amazing thing.”

Lady Lansdowne, a deputy lieutenant of Wiltshire, and Mrs Elliot were among the six “Queen’s companions” appointed last November, replacing the traditional role of ladies in waiting.

Both women were at Her Majesty’s side throughout the day on Saturday, wearing long, ivory dresses designed by Fiona Clare.

They also appeared alongside the Royal party on the Buckingham Palace balcony after the ceremony, something neither they nor the Pages of Honour had expected to do.

“We only knew we were going on the balcony one minute before,” Lady Lansdowne revealed.

“They didn’t tell us or the boys. It was a little gift but also, I think they slightly realised that without the boys holding the trains the Queen would have been held back because they don’t slide very easily on a carpet.

“So the boys needed to be there and then we were just told that we were all going on the balcony which was extraordinary.”

Recalling the moment, Lady Lansdowne told the BBC: “You could feel the enthusiasm of the crowds, you could feel all those wonderful people in the rain – just willing them on and it was the most extraordinary experience – this groundswell of singing and chanting and clapping.

“And for those little boys, something they will never forget. If you’re nine or 10 that’s something that will stay with you forever.”

The Queen and the King were both “extremely” tired by the end of the day, she added, but “so proud of how it went”.

Lady Lansdowne was also proud of her friend. She said of the Queen: “She really held it together in the most marvellous way.

“It’s an extraordinary thing to suddenly do, to be in the middle of this amazing medieval yet modern service and keep ramrod straight – she never slouched in her chair, she sat perfectly straight – and I think she was just absorbing it. As we all were.”

Lady Lansdowne said Prince George, nine, and his fellow Pages of Honour had done a fantastic job, were “so smart” and took it “very, very seriously”.