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Original poster

Do govt employee find out early about the Queen’s death?

596 replies

Ginandpink · 08/09/2022 20:43

My brother said they were told early, doesn’t make sense?

OP posts:
Bovrilly · 09/09/2022 10:33

"..when the BBC cancelled programming I knew she had gone..

It's so odd the way people really strive to say they knew she was dead before everyone else - why does it even matter?!"

😂😂

Windbeneathmybingowings · 09/09/2022 10:35

I watched the news all day and it was very obvious when it happened. The tone completely changed.

Mummyoflittledragon · 09/09/2022 11:53

RedToothBrush · 09/09/2022 08:10

The information this morning goes like this.

Doctors became concerned Thursday night.
Just before 7am, Charles requested that the Queens helicopter be flown to Scotland (he was staying at Dumfries House, Ayrshire) and he started to make his way to Balmoral. Anne was staying with her mother already. Camila was at Charles Scottish residence and made her way by car.

Charles arrived at Balmoral at 10.37am. He and Anne were with their mother when she died.

Sometime around noon the call must have been made to make the statement about her health.

Whats interesting is the timing of the flight from Windsor to Aberdeen for the other Royals. It seems to only have been arranged after noon.

They didn't attempt to go to Balmoral before then. So despite there being significant concern from Charles prompting him to go Balmoral the others didn't go. We know Charles had been seeing his mother daily over the summer though. So clearly there was significant concerns.

It looks like Charles probably was party to the call being made to tell parliament too.

So it sounds like the Queen must have gone downhill quick but had a few hours were she was very sick - enough time for Charles to get there.

The fact the other Royals dashed to Balmoral suggested they did TRY to get there in time. But they already knew it may be too late - same as the rest of the world. Or they already knew it was too late.

The PM being told at 4.30pm does fit the narrative that she died mid afternoon rather than earlier and whilst the other royals were en route.

I don't think anything suggests much different. Everyone knew she was dying by lunchtime.

Even my 8 year old was astute enough to say 'so she's going to die today' when I told him the Queen was sick at 3.30pm after school.

Thank you. This is what I really needed to know. The Queen was with people, who loved her very much and knows she was much loved around the world.

I am sure at least her 2 other children would like to have been there and that is sad for them. However, she is likely to have been asleep so they will have arrived for quiet contemplation and be able to go and see their goodbyes to her in their own ways.

As for the time she died, I would like to know at some stage and I am sure this will be released in due course. Now is not the time.

silkygold · 09/09/2022 11:59

You hadn't twigged before 5.30pm? Really?

Oh yes I definitely thought she'd gone before then. I just mean the men near the flagpole was something strongly telling, in case anyone was still believing the "she is resting and comfortable" banner that hadn't changed since lunchtime. Nicholas Witchell's demeanour changed too. He earlier declined to comment on the photo of William and his uncles driving into Balmoral but when a later version was shown where you could see Sophie looking upset, he suggested people could draw their own conclusions. I actually thought she'd passed before 4.30

Mummyoflittledragon · 09/09/2022 12:02

I also think that Harry was delayed as he was being cared for by Meghan and that perhaps there was a discussion either amongst themselves or with the family as to whether or not she will accompany him. This will have to have been handled incredibly sensitively.

OrangeFlowersAreLovely · 09/09/2022 12:08

I was only really convinced she had already gone after switching on the TV and seeing the presenters all in black 😪

Amybelle88 · 09/09/2022 12:17

Bovrilly · 09/09/2022 10:33

"..when the BBC cancelled programming I knew she had gone..

It's so odd the way people really strive to say they knew she was dead before everyone else - why does it even matter?!"

😂😂

😂😂😂😂 I didn't even realise what I'd put there! I was just stating how my day went I literally don't care that anyone 'knew' before me and I wasn't told in any official capacity.

There's people on here literally stating message times and trying to make out they've spoke to people in MI5 who jumped on WhatsApp just to tell them, it's baffling 😂

Octomore · 09/09/2022 12:18

Harry was delayed as he was being cared for by Meghan

I don't understand what you mean by this. Harry is a healthy adult man, he doesn't need to be 'cared for'.

sunglassesonthetable · 09/09/2022 12:25

Harry was delayed as he was being cared for by Meghan

Head massage and boiled egg probs.

blueskyeve · 09/09/2022 13:00

Was the first official announcement of her death the notice placed on the gates of the palace? Or was Huw Edwards at BBC first? Or was it announced somewhere else first?

deedledeedledum · 09/09/2022 13:10

coldandverytired · 08/09/2022 20:55

Home office briefed ‘a significant event involving a core member of the royal family’ last Friday.

They didn't know last Friday that she was going to die yesterday

deedledeedledum · 09/09/2022 13:11

Tacocatgoatcheesepizza · 08/09/2022 21:05

Beth Rigby just posted on Twitter that Liz Truss was told by Simon Case at 4:30pm.

Being PM it would make sense that she was told very soon after the death occurred. If Truss wasn't told until 16:30 then it's unlikely anyone else was told earlier

deedledeedledum · 09/09/2022 13:14

PicturesOfDogs · 08/09/2022 21:34

I heard about 4:00 from someone who works in a ‘royal’ industry, there have been countless rumours before, but this is the first time she had said something to me.
They also were told about Philips death about half an hour before it was announced.
According to her, the original announcement. Was supposed to be earlier but was delayed, presumably so the family could gather.

There’s so much that needs to happen, so hardly surprising that many people are told beforehand if they are in a role where they need to know.

Its surely common in every industry for staff to be made aware of things before official press releases

Whoever keeps running to you and telling you everything seems a tad indiscrete. Bit ghastly

deedledeedledum · 09/09/2022 13:17

Grissii · 08/09/2022 21:47

So if “everyone” knew at 4.30, what took Harry so long to arrive?

They all arrived after she passed. Apart from Charles.

Bovrilly · 09/09/2022 13:19

And Anne I think? She was there already.

Quartz2208 · 09/09/2022 14:01

@RedToothBrush

Whats interesting is the timing of the flight from Windsor to Aberdeen for the other Royals. It seems to only have been arranged after noon.

That is the bit I cant quite work out.

BEcause Anne was already there and Charles around a lot one assumes that it was expected ish. That there were signs Weds night/Thursday am but then there was a far more rapid decline from around 11am Thursday morning when the alarm was sounded

PizzaFunghi · 09/09/2022 14:33

blueskyeve · 09/09/2022 13:00

Was the first official announcement of her death the notice placed on the gates of the palace? Or was Huw Edwards at BBC first? Or was it announced somewhere else first?

all the news organisations must have been told at a similar time.

I switched on the TV coincidentally around then as I'd just finished work, and had forgotten that it was set to channel 5 from last time. So I watched that for a minute and they announced it officially, and then their logo came up and I realised it wasn't BBC, which I'd meant to watch. So I switched over to BBC, and Huw was just getting ready to make the official announcement.

I'm sure it was announced elsewhere around the same time. But BBC definitely wasn't first.

PizzaFunghi · 09/09/2022 14:35

How did Harry get there in the end? Surely not a commercial flight to Aberdeen with the general public?! Or if so, I hope he had a large entourage to keep him private and protected. Apparently he left there this morning on a British Airways flight, which sounds like a commercial scheduled flight, though it's hard to believe he'd be mixing with the public at this point. Maybe they bump everyone else off or at least everyone in first class off, to give him space.

SilverLiningPlaybook · 09/09/2022 14:35

NW just saying the Queen died at 4.30 yesterday. I don’t know where he got that from.

PizzaFunghi · 09/09/2022 14:35

And who were the other 3 people on the afternoon flight, did we ever find out? Members of the Queen's private staff perhaps?

Swimmingpoolsally · 09/09/2022 14:44

SilverLiningPlaybook · 09/09/2022 14:35

NW just saying the Queen died at 4.30 yesterday. I don’t know where he got that from.

No idea who that is but she 100 percent died much earlier. Not least because it would mean she died after liz truss was told. But more than that, I knew at 4 from a friend in the media who had the embargoed statement.

TwinGirlsOnTheWay · 09/09/2022 14:53

jojogoesbust · 09/09/2022 09:40

I think to any normal person it was clear she was dying when they released the statement from Buck House. Once everyone including Harry was on the way, it was obvious she had passed or it was imminent

It was obvious from the fact BBC cancelled their regular programming and that they were all doing rolling news coverage. Why else would they have done that? I felt sorry for them all having to make things up for hours when it was obvious she was dead

Zonder · 09/09/2022 16:04

deedledeedledum · 09/09/2022 13:17

They all arrived after she passed. Apart from Charles.

Show quote history

This. And I think he got there about 1 so she died some time after 1 and he was at her bedside.

jennakong · 09/09/2022 16:41

Who are all these 'friends' and 'husbands' who get to know before anyone else? The 'London bridge' protocol states that the monarch's private secretary contacts the PM via a SECURE telephone line, and that code words are used, the next to be informed is the Privy Council and govt ministers, then the Foreign Office so that other govts can be informed. Again, this is done via coded messages and secure lines. Only after that are news orgs advised, again at a very senior level. The only civil servants told are exceptionally senior, probably undersecretaries, and certainly not people who take advantage of their teabreak to gossip to their nearest and dearest on mobile phones/ on Mumsnet and break the terms of the OSA, which they have signed. If they were caught, what do you think the consequences would be? Look what happened to civil servants who ate a bit of cake in Downing Street. Jesus, there is some bullshit on here.

notimagain · 09/09/2022 16:46

PizzaFunghi · 09/09/2022 14:35

How did Harry get there in the end? Surely not a commercial flight to Aberdeen with the general public?! Or if so, I hope he had a large entourage to keep him private and protected. Apparently he left there this morning on a British Airways flight, which sounds like a commercial scheduled flight, though it's hard to believe he'd be mixing with the public at this point. Maybe they bump everyone else off or at least everyone in first class off, to give him space.

As I understand it he flew northbound yesterday on a charted executive jet, southbound this AM AFAIK he was on one of the normal BA commercial flights....I very very much doubt BA bumped everybody off the aircraft, and in the past some of the quite senior Royals have been known to fly in business class with members of the general public so I wouldn't assume that cabin was cleared just for him but but don't know for certain..(BTW no First Class on BA shorthaul).