There’s always been speculation about what ‘secret signals’ Queen Elizabeth II would use when she was ready to leave an event – but now we seem to have one confirmed.
Her Majesty the Queen died on September 8, aged 96, while surrounded by loved ones at Balmoral Castle, Buckingham Palace confirmed.
Tributes have been pouring in from far and wide, with mourners gathering in their thousands to lay flowers and pay their respects.
Following the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, many people who worked closely with her have been sharing their favourite anecdotes, including a former footman.
Ian Scott Hunter worked as a footman for the Queen for eight years, meaning he was able to pick up her little quirks and became familiar with mannerisms the general public might not pick up on.
Speaking on a special episode of Antiques Roadshow onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, which ‘celebrated the reign and long life of Her Majesty the Queen’, he shared what the Queen would do to signal that she was ready to retire from an occasion.
The Queen was often spotted with a bright coloured lipstick, which tended to complement her equally vibrant outfits, but there was sometimes a reason for her applying it.
‘I believe there’s etiquette that ladies do not make their faces up in public,’ Hunter began.
‘But, she had her bag over the side and she would take her lipstick out and put it on with no mirror or anything, and that was a signal to the ladies that she was ready to leave.
‘So, of course, they would all get their bits and bobs together and Her Majesty stands up, so they’re all ready and prepared.’
So, when you look back at photos of Queen Elizabeth applying her lipstick in public, now you know what she might have been thinking!
Another signal the late monarch is thought to have used involved her handbag, something she was rarely seen in public without.
According to author and royal commentator Kristen Meinzer, who shared this information in Newsweek’s The Royal Report podcast, if the Queen swapped her purse from one arm to the other, she was signalling to her ladies-in-waiting that she wanted someone to come and interrupt the conversation.
Following her death, the Queen’s son immediately became King Charles III with his wife Camilla now Queen Consort.
King Charles was formally declared the new monarch in a televised broadcast on Saturday.
It has since been confirmed that the Queen’s funeral service will be held on September 19 at 11am, with the day to become a bank holiday.
Her coffin has now arrived in Edinburgh and will lie in state before travelling to her final resting place in London next week.
Well-wishers stood solemnly on the Royal Mile to pay their respects to the late monarch on Sunday.
