Late Queen’s final personal diary entry surfaces

The final handwritten entry from her personal journal has emerged, two years after her death at the age of 96.

IN LONDON

The late Queen Elizabeth’s final diary entry, written just before her death, has surfaced in a new book.

Details of the note, penned on September 6, have been published in Robert Hardman’s biography on King Charles, Charles III: New King, New Court, which delves into the last days of the former monarch’s life.

During her 70-year reign, the monarch kept a private diary to record key events – a tradition she upheld until her final days.

According to the author, who found the handwritten entries while doing research for his book, the late Queen’s final entry was made at Balmoral, where she died on September 8, 2022.

The late Queen kept a diary for her whole life. Picture: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool/Getty Images

She wrote that her private secretary, Edward Young, had visited her, and shared some highlights about swearing in new Privy Council members.

“It transpires that she was still writing it at Balmoral two days before her death,” Hardman wrote.

“Her last entry was as factual and practical as ever. It could have been describing another normal working day starting in the usual way — ‘Edward came to see me’ — as she noted the arrangements which her private secretary, Sir Edward Young, had made for the swearing-in of the new ministers of the Truss administration.”

She met with Liz Truss just two days before her death. Picture: Jane Barlow – WPA Pool/Getty Images

The Queen’s final engagement was asking Liz Truss to form a government after the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Meanwhile the late monarch’s diary habit is one she reportedly passed on to her son.

A senior courtier previously told the UK’s Telegraph that while King Charles “doesn’t write great narrative diaries like he used to,” he does “scribble down his recollections and reflections”.

The source also noted that his new regal style is “not quite as self-analytical, humorous and readable as the journal he kept as a prince.”

Originally published as Late Queen’s final personal diary entry surfaces