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The royal family
Original poster

Inconsistencies in Spare over hearing about Queen Mother's death

683 replies

Ridemeginger · 10/01/2023 14:52

Harry writes that he found out about the Queen Mother's passing away (in March 2002):

"At Eton, while studying, I took the call. I wish I could remember whose voice was on the other end. A courtiers I believe. I recall that is was just before Easter, the weather bright and warm, light slanting through my window, filled with vivid colours. "Your Royal Highness. The Queen Mother has died." "

News reports at the time reported he was skiing in Switzerland with Charles and William. The Queen Mother died on 30 March 2002. Easter Saturday. He wouldn't have been at school.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/622457.stm

Recollections may vary, indeed! I doubt very much Harry would have taken the call if he's been with his father.

Didn't the editors do any fact checking?

OP posts:
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MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/01/2023 14:56

Oops.

What editors? 😉

Boulshired · 10/01/2023 14:56

I wrote about this in another thread, memories do get muddled in grief but the problem is this is someone surrounded by grief. It’s not that he’s miss remembered but that he’s created a false memory. What else in the book could be false memories

growinggreyer · 10/01/2023 14:57

Gosh, how formal. I didn't think their servants called them Your Royal Highness behind closed doors.

smileladiesplease · 10/01/2023 14:59

Big pinch of salt everything he says really

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/01/2023 14:59

growinggreyer · 10/01/2023 14:57

Gosh, how formal. I didn't think their servants called them Your Royal Highness behind closed doors.

'Sir' I think is the usual address.

LittleBearPad · 10/01/2023 15:00

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/01/2023 14:59

'Sir' I think is the usual address.

Show quote history

After the first your royal highness.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/01/2023 15:05

LittleBearPad · 10/01/2023 15:00

After the first your royal highness.

Show quote history

Why would a courtier tell him? unless of course this is another 'how cold and unloving my father is, he couldn't even tell me when the QM died, it was a courtier on the phone.'

Large shovelfuls of salt needed here.

HelloYourself · 10/01/2023 15:07

These things really should have been fact checked by someone. It's easy to misremember things so it's not necessarily lying, but he loses credibility with stuff like this.

growinggreyer · 10/01/2023 15:09

Yes, I was just being wide-eyed at news that the RF are stuffy and have a hierarchy. It is astonishing to me... Grin

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/01/2023 15:11

HelloYourself · 10/01/2023 15:07

These things really should have been fact checked by someone. It's easy to misremember things so it's not necessarily lying, but he loses credibility with stuff like this.

He has the internet, presumably, and could check the exact date she died (I can't recall the date of my GM's death and I'd have to ask).

Original poster
Ridemeginger · 10/01/2023 15:11

Well there's 2 issues.

  1. Was he at Eton and called by a courtier? Not if the BBC report is correct.
  2. Was he the person that took the call from London telling the Swiss party that the QM was dead? Is that likely? Isn't it more likely that an aide took it, or Prince Charles, and therefore Harry found out personally from an aide or his father. I find it hard to believe Buckingham Palace would have told an 18 year old to tell his dad and brother that Granny' dead.
OP posts:
mixedrecycling · 10/01/2023 15:15

I've just read this www.goodreads.com/book/show/56769574-the-lost-caf-schindler

Really interesting. Her grandfather (Jewish) was attacked during Kristellnacht, and her father (among other contradictory stories) claimed to have witnessed it and it was considered a factor in his mental health issues that excused his forays into fraud and other crimes.

But when she looked into it he was already in London with his mother. On the other hand, he lived as a displaced Austrian boy of Jewish family, some of whom were murdered in the Holocaust. To what extent was he deliberately lying, or had internalised his father's experience and the threat he was under until he came to the UK in his teens in 1938 just before Kristellnacht?

Memories can change over time (as anyone taking evidence of an incident knows). Anyone's memory needs to be corroborated by external evidence.

I suspect H's beliefs in a number of situations have influenced his memories. His emotional need for his narrative to be the one and only truth has distorted his recollection.

JonahCL9 · 10/01/2023 15:15

Am betting premonition guided by Diana's spirit before it took to giggling at broken Christmas decorations

ferneytorro · 10/01/2023 15:17

growinggreyer · 10/01/2023 14:57

Gosh, how formal. I didn't think their servants called them Your Royal Highness behind closed doors.

My husband was in the police. If he saw the inspector out say in town he would say hello sir and, when my husband was inspector if he saw any of his Constables out they would say hello sir. Not saying if that’s right or wrong but formality exists.

Bollindger · 10/01/2023 15:21

www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/mar/30/queenmother.monarchy9

As said away on Holiday,

MandyMotherOfBrian · 10/01/2023 15:21

We’re in a post truth world now OP.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/01/2023 15:22

Maybe the call did happen but it was just to say ‘QM is ill’ and it has got merged in his mind with hearing about her death.
Agree a bit more fact checking would have been good.

Yesthatismychildsigh · 10/01/2023 15:22

It’s entirely possible he was at school, Easter Saturday or not - he was a boarder.

Bollindger · 10/01/2023 15:24

The Prince and his sons had intended to go to an Easter Sunday service at the stone-built 15th century Klosters Evangelical Church today before heading for the slopes.
They were informed of the Queen Mother's death last night at the end of a full day's skiing.
The Prince of Wales had just returned to the Walserhof Hotel when he was telephoned by the Queen at about 3.30pm UK time, 15 minutes after her 101-year-old mother passed away in her sleep.
Charles broke the news to his sons in his hotel room when they returned from the Parsenn slopes, just above Klosters, about half an hour later.

nannyquestion1 · 10/01/2023 15:24

Just a side note - lots of private schools have Saturday school (usually the boarding ones) so he could feasibly have been at school.

I agree with the rest of you! "Inconsistencies" is an interesting word to use...."Wilful lies" might be better.....

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/01/2023 15:26

Ridemeginger · 10/01/2023 15:11

Well there's 2 issues.

  1. Was he at Eton and called by a courtier? Not if the BBC report is correct.
  2. Was he the person that took the call from London telling the Swiss party that the QM was dead? Is that likely? Isn't it more likely that an aide took it, or Prince Charles, and therefore Harry found out personally from an aide or his father. I find it hard to believe Buckingham Palace would have told an 18 year old to tell his dad and brother that Granny' dead.

Given how close PC was to his GM, it's more likely that an aide took the call, told him and he told the princes; or they were told together. And is he suggesting that he was abandoned at Eton to spend his Easter holiday there?

Youwhatnowbiggles · 10/01/2023 15:26

Yes, many have Saturday school but NEVER on Easter Saturday!!! I can guarantee no public school in England would be open on this day. Hth😄

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 10/01/2023 15:27

It was his great grandmother, not his grandmother. She was 102.

Youwhatnowbiggles · 10/01/2023 15:27

And by public school I mean boarding, such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby etc etc

AlecTrevelyan006 · 10/01/2023 15:27

Shouldn’t be getting stuff like this wrong. Very poor form.