Stone's Throw: I remember the day the Queen Mother charmed a French mayor
This is a column by Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP Jamie Stone
It was the Netflix programme about the Queen Mother that did it. Because, like everyone else during lockdown, my better half and I are watching an awful lot of telly.
That August day she opened the Dornoch Bridge.
Although I was a councillor, I wasn’t in the line-up to be formally presented to Her Majesty. I was very definitely on the wrong side of the VIP rope, but all the same I was in a good position to watch the proceedings.
The vice-convener of Ross and Cromarty District Council, Isobel Rhind, was in front of the rope, and she was excitedly hopping from foot to foot as she waited to be presented by the Lord-Lieutenant, Captain Roderick Stirling, who was slowly approaching with the Queen Mother.
Suddenly a Caithness voice murmured in my ear. It was the leader of Caithness District Council, John Young.
“Jimmy, has ’e Queen Mum been properly briefed?”
Sorry, what?
“Does ’e Queen Mother know she’s til curtsy when she meets Mrs Rhind?”
I laughed so heartily that people turned and stared.
Later that day she came to Tain – and nearly 29 years later I remain glad that I had done what I did.
During the weeks before the royal visit I had a brainwave.
I got in touch with the other Tain (on the river Rhône in southern France) and managed to persuade Monsieur le Marie (the Mayor) of the French Tain to join us in Scotland for our big day. He too (wearing a very smart tricolour French sash) hopped from foot to foot as Her Majesty and the Lord-Lieutenant approached.
“Ma’am – may I present the Mayor of Tain in France?”
The Mayor bowed deeply (I had previously advised him not to speak to her unless spoken to first) and then the Queen Mother surprised us all. She spoke to the Mayor in rapid and perfect French. Needless to say he was utterly charmed. It quite made his day.
After she had moved on, I mingled with the crowd. It was then that I noticed something odd.
“Now then, you lucky lucky lad, you are coming with me right now!”
A gentleman in a nondescript suit – who I didn’t recognise – suddenly laid very firm hands on another rather odd looking fellow, who I also didn’t recognise. I turned to an adjacent cop. What was all this?
“Plain clothes. Security; he goes with Her Majesty everywhere. The other bloke is a persistent blighter. Up from the south, trails after her all the time. Bonkers.”
I could go on. I could mention the lunch in the Morangie Hotel, and how a special drink for Her Majesty appeared on a silver tray before we went into the dining room.
“Gin and Dubonnet,” Sandra, the waitress with the silver tray, told me some weeks later “And far stronger than anything you would get at the bar…”
Memories, memories.
At the end of the Netflix programme I reflected on what an incredibly good example Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, has set for us today.
Fortitude in adversity. Buckingham Palace bombed. Becoming a widow at far too young an age. And yet she smiled and carried on. No wonder they loved her in Caithness.
No wonder too that her daughter the Queen is as inspirational as she is during the present pandemic. I may reflect on the lighter side of an event a generation ago – but people like that show us how we shall get through these difficult and dangerous days.
