Former Royal Butler Reveals He Once Rescued One of Queen Elizabeth's Drowning Corgis From a Frozen Lake in Christmas "Disaster"

Queen Elizabeth sitting on a sofa with a corgi

(Image credit: Getty Images)

For royal staff members, Christmas at Sandringham is a hectic, yet strictly scheduled time of year, but despite their set-in-stone traditions and time tables, things occasionally do go wrong. Princess Diana's former royal butler, Paul Burrell, tells Marie Claire that along with singed eyebrows and BB gun fiascos, the unthinkable almost happened with one of Queen Elizabeth's corgis.

Speaking on behalf of Casino.org, Burrell says, "One year, I had a real disaster. The lake at Sandringham had frozen over, and one of the corgis decided to try and cross it."

Burrell, who helped look after the late Queen's beloved corgis as a footman at the time, says "the ice gave way, and straight in the corgi went." Panicking, the footman grabbed a stick, sharing that he "was stretched out over the thick ice with a stick, trying to reach this poor, drowning corgi in the middle of the lake."

Queen Elizabeth walking corgis at Balmoral — Queen Elizabeth is pictured walking her dogs on the Balmoral estate in 1997.

Lucikly, all's well that ends well. "Thankfully, I managed to rescue it," Burrell shares. "But it was another one of those moments I will never forget. All I could think was, 'Not on my watch—I am not losing one of the Queen’s corgis.'"

The late Queen owned more than 30 corgis over her 70-year reign, along with daschund/corgi mixes called dorgis, which were first bred after a corgi mated with one of Princess Margaret's dogs, Pipkin. She was given her first corgi, Susan, as an 18th birthday present, and her last two corgis, Sandy and Muick, were gifts from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021.

Queen Elizabeth petting a corgi — Queen Elizabeth is pictured meeting a corgi in 2010.

Along with nearly losing one of Queen Elizabeth's dogs, Burrell says that the Royal Family's Christmas tree fell down one year in another "complete disaster." He explains that the tree in Sandringham House's White Drawing Room "hadn’t been secured properly."

"Suddenly, we heard this almighty crash…the entire tree had come down, right onto the drawing-room floor," he adds. "We had to call in the groundsmen and gardeners to put it upright again."

"Ever since then, of course, it’s been firmly secured, never to happen again, Burrell says. "But that’s the thing about Christmas: it’s always the disasters and the surprises that stay with you."

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Kristin Contino is Marie Claire's Senior Royal and Celebrity editor. She's been covering royalty since 2018—including major moments such as the Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II’s death and King Charles III's coronation—and places a particular focus on the British Royal Family's style and what it means.

Prior to working at Marie Claire, she wrote about celebrity and royal fashion at Page Six Style and covered royalty from around the world as chief reporter at Royal Central. Kristin has provided expert commentary for outlets including the BBC, Sky News, US Weekly, the Today Show and many others.

Kristin is also the published author of two novels, “The Legacy of Us” and “A House Full of Windsor.” She's passionate about travel, history, horses, and learning everything she can about her favorite city in the world, London.