Is this the correct use of 'myself '?

[Cracklingfire1]

Is the the correct use of myself? I always thought myself was just used as a reflexive but Charles used it in his speech below and I'm assuming this has been proof read and agreed so must be right, if so why is it right in this example?

"I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family."

When is it correct to use "myself"?

You can think of the reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, herself etc) as 'reflective' - like a mirror.

A mirror reflects an image back at itself, a reflexive pronouns reflects an action back at the person doing it: 'I made myself a drink'.

A mirror can also be used to double up an image; a reflexive pronoun can be used to double up the pronoun for emphasis. You could say 'I wrote the report' and have a perfectly goods sentence, but if your colleague has a habit of stealing credit and you want to make perfectly clear to your boss who did the work, you could say 'I wrote the report myself'. (But not 'The report was written by myself'.)

Aarrgghh can't bel8eve l missed that!!
I was half cut by the time l watched it though!

You are right in that English evolves. For example, the who/whom distinction seems to be fast disappearing. And it has become perfectly acceptable to say "It's me" rather than the grammatically correct "It's I." There are many other examples.

I do hope that the expanding use of reflexive pronouns does not take hold, though, because the distinctions are useful and provide more nuance to the language.

The proper use of reflexive pronouns is in the name. A reflexive pronoun refers back to something. If you can't locate the thing it's referring to, you are probably doing it wrong.

I did it myself. Here the reflexive is for emphasis and the reference point is "I".

He gave it to myself. There is no reference point for "myself."

No one in the press seems to have picked up on the 'myself' which makes it even more disappointing - did they not notice?

Let's hope Camilla or Kate is on MN and is able to have a quiet word in HM's ear before he repeats the mistake next year. 🤣