Not in Front of the Corgis by Brian Hoey Read Free Book Online

staff – didn’t trust him at all. But they were cautious in their treatment as they realised he had the ear of Her Majesty, andin royal circles, that’s all that counts. The sixty-odd domestic staff at Clarence House were terrified of him and he said that when dealing with people below you in the pecking order it was more important to be feared than liked. He once told me that the secret of his success was that it didn’t matter who you were or where you came from; it was what people thought you were and where they thought you came from that mattered. He manufactured a persona for himself that was completely at odds with his humble working-class background and he said The Queen Mother encouraged him to assume the mannerisms and demeanour of someone from the ‘upper crust’ – his words. But he added that he always knew his place in the system and never succumbed to ‘Red Carpet Fever’ like so many others.

CHAPTER THREE
W HO L OVES Y A?
    here has always been an unofficial popularity ‘league table’ within the Royal Household regarding who the servants – and the police – prefer working for. It’s been a running gag for generations of staff. The table changes from time to time but surprisingly, the people that, to the outside world, appear to be the most arrogant, difficult and uncompromising usually come out at the top of the table.
    The relationship between the Royal Family and their servants is difficult to define in that you rarely get the sort of comfortable master/mistress/servant familiarity that exists in some aristocratic families.
    The Royals are reluctant to allow anyone outside the immediate family to get too close, with few exceptions . The Queen’s former Nanny, the late Bobo McDonald, enjoyed a special relationship with HerMajesty until the day she died and Prince Charles is on friendly terms with his closest servants, his valets. But they know they should not confuse friendliness with familiarity. Royalty’s apparent friendship with their servants is, inevitably, temporary, usually lasting only for the duration of the employment, and there is also a slight air of patronage about the relationships.
D IANA, P RINCESS OF W ALES
    The late Diana, Princess of Wales was by far the most popular member of the Royal Family to the public during her lifetime, but not always to her staff. She could be the most loved and adored and occasionally the most disliked and feared when her mood changed. Generous to a fault, she encouraged familiarity with her staff, even joining her chef in the kitchen at Kensington Palace where she would sit on the table, swinging her legs and enjoying a good gossip. She would often ask for egg and chips to be served with lashings of ketchup. The next day she could be the most imperious of women; a regular prima donna; demanding, suspicious and autocratic. She inspired devotion more than fear. But the staff never quite knew where they were with her – and royal servants like to know their place, and for their masters and mistresses to know theirs. It’s safer that way. One of her staff said Diana was very easy to love, but not so easy to like.
    Several of her protection officers asked to be moved because of her capricious behaviour and Oliver Everett, one of the most trusted officials in the RoyalHousehold, was charged with instructing Diana, before she became Princess of Wales, in how to walk down the aisle at her wedding. He did this by attaching pieces of paper to an ordinary day dress to simulate the twenty-five foot train on the actual wedding dress. Oliver and Diana got along famously, until shortly after the wedding, when, once again, he found it difficult to cope with her moods. He resigned from the Household of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and found himself working for The Queen as Librarian at Windsor Castle. So it wasn’t all sweetness and light with the woman who was regarded by many as the most adored person in the world.
T HE D UKE OF E DINBURGH
    Prince