‘Sparkling and spirited’: Queen’s last weeks at Balmoral full of fun

Lunches, chats and laughter – Her Majesty was still enjoying ‘amazingly good form’ at the weekend in Balmoral.

The Queen looked frail as she performed her last significant royal duty on Tuesday when she received outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson and his successor, Liz Truss, at Balmoral. Picture: Jane Barlow/POOL/AFP VIA Getty Images/The Times

A clergyman who spent last weekend with the Queen said that she had been “full of fun” and the “life and soul of things”.

The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, 68, stayed with the Queen at Balmoral after being invited to perform a sermon at Braemar and Crathie Parish Church, the church where Her Majesty worshipped while at the castle in Scotland.

Greenshields, a Kirk minister and moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, had dinner on Saturday evening and lunch on Sunday afternoon with the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal. He told The Times: “It was a fantastic visit. Her memory was absolutely amazing and she was really full of fun.

“It came as a great shock to me when I heard she was gravely ill because she was in amazingly good form over the weekend.

“She was the life and soul of things. She was speaking very personally to me about her time there way back when she was a child, she was talking about her horses from the past, naming them from 40 years ago, people’s names and places. She was quite remarkable.

“For someone of her age, to have the memory she had, and genuinely laughing and very much enjoying having her family and the whole occasion. She was great company. She couldn’t come to the sermon because of her mobility, so Charles came instead.

“She was amazing just around the people, gathering everyone together, conversing widely, she very much impressed me as a very capable lady.

The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields had dinner and lunch with the Queen last weekend. Picture: Church of Scotland/PA/The Times

“We were talking about Ukraine and the situation there and her sadness at what she was seeing happening.

“She was talking about church affairs, she was very apprised of everything going on in the Church of Scotland, which would put a lot of our members to shame, she probably knew a lot more than the average member. It was only a few days ago, I can’t believe it.”

The previous weekend, the Very Rev Dr Martin Fair, 58, who has been minister at Arbroath St Andrews for 30 years, stayed as her guest at Balmoral.

He said: “I found her to be bright and in very good spirits, so I was sad to hear the announcement about her deterioration. We were in her sitting room and in the dining room as part of a family gathering – it was a privilege to be part of it.

“She was absolutely switched on about everything, current affairs and historical memories. She was on very good form.

“I had been once before in 2014. The first time I was a bit of a nervous wreck but going on a second time I knew it would be fine because she put me at such ease. She’s clearly a woman who had a strong faith and that very much matters to her. She wanted to know about the service, she was very switched on.

“It was absolutely lovely to see her smile and there was still that part of her that enjoys some fun.”

The Queen travelled to Balmoral for her summer break on July 21. On August 8 her traditional welcome to Balmoral Castle by a guard of honour was said to have been held in private inside the grounds. A source said that the change was “in line with events being adapted for Her Majesty’s comfort”.

There have been reports of regular morning visits by Prince Charles and Princess Anne. The Queen then missed the Braemar Gathering, the Highland Games event, on September 3, with sources suggesting that the decision was taken for her comfort. Charles attended in her place.

In the days before the Queen had left Windsor for Scotland, she held a meeting of the Privy Council via video.

Alister Jack, the Conservative MP and secretary of state for Scotland, attended the meeting and told The Times: “I’m not allowed to talk about what we discussed at Privy Council but I did speak with her and she was as sharp as a tack.

“Also, I attended an event with her in the first week of July and she was in sparkling form.”

Tony Blair, the former prime minister, revealed he had lunch with the Queen a few months ago and echoed the sentiment. “We sat next to each other and she was on sparkling form as we talked – warm, gracious, humorous and spirited,” he said.

On Tuesday she received the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and accepted Liz Truss as his replacement.

The Court Circular also recorded a further meeting in which she invested Donal McCabe, her communications secretary, with the insignia of a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, an honour reserved for people who have served the royal family.

The Queen after attending the ‘A Gallop Through History’ Platinum Jubilee celebration at the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Windsor Castle. Picture: Steve Parsons / POOL / AFP

After the Platinum Jubilee, Buckingham Palace reduced or removed some of the Queen’s duties in an annual review. It was the first time in at least a decade the palace’s annual report has edited or amended the Queen’s duties.

Events such as the state opening of parliament, once thought a necessary constitutional convention, was performed by Charles, who delivered her speech in May.

Other “must fulfil” specific duties in the “formal constitutional concept”, such as paying and receiving state visits, were reduced with vague language that stated her role “encompasses a range of parliamentary and diplomatic duties”.

Although the Queen scaled back the number of events she attended, or delegated them to other members of the family, she insisted on persevering with events such as her weekly audience with the prime minister and gathering the Privy Council.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Queen became an advocate of carrying out her duties over Zoom. In 2020 a video showed Princess Anne teaching the Queen how to make video calls.

In February, after testing positive for coronavirus, the Queen continued “light duties”, despite experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms”.

Light duties restricted her to the grounds of Windsor Castle and probably included reading state papers, which usually took up a significant chunk of her time nearly every day.

In March she cancelled her attendance at an important Commonwealth event at Westminster Abbey and Charles stood in for his mother at the service.

The Times