Former Royal Family Butler Reveals the Surprising Thing Queen Elizabeth Did That Made Her a ‘Cool’ Boss
Since Queen Elizabeth II‘s death on Sept. 8, 2022, some of her former employees and others who worked within the royal household have shared their fond memories of the late monarch. That includes Grant Harrold, who was King Charles III’s butler for seven years when he was still the Prince of Wales. During the time he worked for Charles, Harrold also spent time with and got to know Queen Elizabeth as well as the new queen consort (formerly known as Camilla Parker Bowles).
Here’s what Harrold shared about what the queen and the queen consort were both like to work for behind closed doors.
Harrold shared a story about the queen’s humor that made her a ‘cool boss’
Harrold talked about the late queen’s great sense of humor and recalled a story that reflected that and how “cool” of a boss she was.
Speaking on behalf of OnlineCasino.ca Harrold revealed: “With the queen, I used to hear about her sense of humor and the fact that sometimes you couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not and she had this amazing humor and sometimes she’d catch you off guard.
“So I remember being with her in Scotland and one night I went in to announce dinner. I went to see her and I walked up, nodded my head and said ‘dinner is ready’ and there were other guests there. She walked out of the room and she kind of looked back towards the room and nobody else had followed her.”
He continued: “Royal protocol kind of states they should follow or at least already be in the dining room and they were all still in the other room chatting. So she ran down the corridor and I remember looking thinking ‘the queen is running, what do I do?’ so I started running, well not running because I thought it would be rude to run as a butler so I kind of did a trot into the room and when we got in there she looked around and she smiled and I heard the rest of the guests running down the corridor to come in. She looked at me then she gave me a wink as if to say ‘how about that.’ I was like ‘oh my god, you are so cool,’ and I loved that. Everyone knew that’s what she was like, which I then discovered.
“She was always so polite, so polite, always smiling and making a joke or comment. Very observant, she noticed every detail. I used to get excited if I was on duty and she was there.”
What the former royal butler thought of Camilla as a boss
The former royal butler also has memories of working for Camilla, Queen Consort and stated that she was present during his interview and that was before she and Charles even tied the knot.
Harrold remembered: “She was there the whole time I was there, she interviewed me. I was the last butler to be taken on before she became Duchess of Cornwall so I was probably one of the last players in the team to be employed at the time. She was there for the process and I remember thinking, ‘why was she there?’ She was lovely but nine months later they were engaged so obviously the plans had already been put into place.
“It was lovely, she was absolutely brilliant, she was a lovely character. I liked her, I got on with her and she was great fun, wonderful to be around, and she’s a very good dancer. I danced with her on a few occasions. A brilliant boss, absolutely brilliant.”
