Former Royal Butler Shares One of the Rare Moments When the Royals Got To Enjoy "Private Time as a Family"
Grant Harrold says the late Queen especially enjoyed one summer activity.
With June in full swing, the Royal Family is getting ready to plan a summer full of activities, and that includes an annual trip to Balmoral. Picnics have been a big part of life on the Scottish estate, and former royal butler Grant Harrold shared that these relaxed moments allowed Queen Elizabeth, King Charles and the rest of the family the chance to step away from the formality of palace life.
“Picnics were a massive thing for the late Queen,” Harrold, speaking on behalf of Smooth Spins Casino, said. “She loved her picnics, and you can imagine the picnics come in different variations.”
The late Queen enjoyed everything from a casual meal “with the hamper and travel rug” to “the posher picnics where they all go out somewhere and there's tables and there's chairs,” Harrold shared. But what was more important than the location was the private time with family and friends.
The late Queen and Prince Philip, joined by Princess Anne, Prince Charles and an infant Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, spread out a blanket in front of Balmoral Castle in 1960.
Harrold, who served King Charles at Highgrove House between 2004 and 2011, said that while he’d occasionally help set things up for the royals, they “would normally do it themselves.”
“The chefs prepared all the food, the butlers would load everything into the vehicles, and off they would go,” he recalled. However, if there was a larger lunch planned, Harrold said the butlers “would go and help lay out the tables, but we wouldn’t serve the food. It would all just get put out and they would help themselves.”
“There was no staff, so it was a great chance for them to have private time as a family,” he added.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip fish at Balmoral in 1972.
That do-it-yourself attitude also extended to cleaning up. Multiple guests of the late Queen have noted that she washed the dishes herself after casual meals at Balmoral, including one former courtier.
“I was once at a shooting lunch,” the royal insider told Harry Mount (via the Daily Mail). “At the end of lunch, I heard someone say, 'I’ll do the washing-up.' I turned around and there was the Queen in her yellow washing-up gloves.”
