AN audience of Tavistock women had a unique and often humorous insight into the day-to-day lives of the Royal family recently, at the Bedford Hotel.
Former Royal butler Paul Kidd delivered an enthralling speech to members of Tavistock Ladies? Luncheon Club to mark its 40th anniversary.
He recounted some hilarious and touching anecdotes from his time as dining room steward at Buckingham Palace, and later at Clarence House where he was senior footman to the Queen Mother.
He said on one occasion, during a state banquet with the Romanian president, the Queen bent down to pick up a knife she had dropped at the same moment her footman bent down to retrieve it.
Their heads collided and the Queen sat up, catching her hair on the talon of a solid gold eagle adorning the front of a priceless wine cooler.
?It tore the tiara out of the Queen?s hair, and a deathly hush fell on 250 guests,? said Mr Kidd.
?We saw the guests away that night, and the Queen went off to find the footman.
?We thought he was going to get a dressing down from Her Majesty, but we later found out she had apologised to him for any embarrassment she had caused him!
?Now, if that doesn?t show real graciousness, I don?t know what does.?
Mr Kidd, who comes from Lancashire, landed the position at the Palace in the 1970s when he answered an advertisement in the Lady magazine.
He said that after his interview at Buckingham Palace he did not expect to be selected.
?I thought ?Oh well, it?s been a day out if nothing else.? There was nobody more surprised than me when a letter arrived saying I had got the job,? he said.
During his three-month probationary period at the Palace, Mr Kidd never set eyes on a member of the Royal family.
?I thought this was very weird because we were living under the same roof!,? he said.
In 1977, when the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee, he was chosen to accompany her and Prince Philip on their tour of the Commonwealth aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.
He was promoted in 1979, and joined the household of the Queen Mother at Clarence House.
Mr Kidd remembered an occasion when the Queen Mother was trying to decide what to wear to a public engagement.
?She kept changing her mind about which of two dresses she should wear ? a green one and a blue one,? he recalled.
?One of them was more summery than the other one, and she was worried about the weather changing, as this particular event was outdoors.
?Eventually the Queen Mother asked me what I thought the weather was going to do. I didn?t know and asked her if I should call the Met Office.
?She immediately replied ?Oh, don?t trouble them ? they never know what the weather?s doing!??
Sadly, he was forced to relinquish his duties three years later when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Having made a remarkable recovery, Mr Kidd now makes a living by touring the world, speaking about his experiences through his agents, the Speakers? Agency.
He recently took part in a cruise from Baltimore to the Caribbean where he became the first speaker on board a cruise liner to attract more than 1,000 people to an after-dinner speech.