The Queen's unexpected household habit that used to leave dinner guests 'in awe'

Edinburgh Live

2 days ago

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Being part of the Royal family comes with its perks, but it appears no one is exempt from mundane household chores. While the royals have a team of Palace staff to maintain their homes, some tasks require a personal touch.
For the late Queen, one domestic duty proved therapeutic. According to a Royal expert, Her Majesty would often charm her house guests by donning a pair of yellow gloves and doing the washing up.
Gyles Brandreth's biography, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, reveals this wholesome habit. Former Prime Minister David Cameron recalled trying to lend a hand with the dishes during a visit to Balmoral.
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Cameron shared with Gyles: "I'm not making this up, you sat down and Prince Philip and Her Majesty The Queen served your dinner and cleared it away and washed it up while you sat talking with the other guests.
"I remember thinking it was sort of year five, I thought: 'Well, I now surely can help' and got up and got on the Marigolds and started doing the washing-up. And I remember Her Majesty saying: 'What on earth is the Prime Minister doing?' I'd broken with the protocol and rapidly sat back down and did what I was told.", reports the Mirror.
(Image: Samir Hussein/WireImage via Getty Images)
(Image: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
David Cameron wasn't the only one taken aback by Her Majesty's insistence on tidying up after herself and her guests, as another close friend of the Royal Family shared a similar experience during a small luncheon.
Dickie Arbiter, who worked closely with the Queen for many years as her Press Secretary, was invited to a small private lunch with the late Monarch and her husband, Prince Philip, which ended up with the two of them carrying out the unexpected domestic chore.
Speaking to True Royalty TV, Dickie explained that he had volunteered to clean up from the lunch and ventured to the kitchen to begin the process of washing dishes when he heard a "very familiar voice" behind him.
He said: "When I arrived at Buckingham Palace, my boss said to me, 'you've been invited to Balmoral for a dine and sleep to meet the Queen'.
"There were only four of us at this lunch: The Queen, her lady-in-waiting, Prince Philip and myself. It lasted about 45 minutes, with china plates, silver cutlery and Tupperware that we helped ourselves from.
"And at the end of it, the Queen said, 'We've got to clear up' and I took it as my cue as the junior flunky to do the washing up. So I went into the kitchen and started washing up. I heard this footfall behind me and assumed it was the lady-in-waiting coming to give me a hand.
"I said over my shoulder without even turning, 'Okay, I'll wash you dry'. This very familiar voice behind me said, 'No, I'll wash, you dry'. It was the Queen. So she plunged her hands into the fairy liquid - no gloves - and I did the drying up. It was quite an experience to actually do a bit of domesticity with a head of state."