Featured Image Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: The Queen
Emma Guinness
Queen Elizabeth ruled for seven decades, and she developed various secret signals in that time to let her staff know how she was really feeling.
One of these involved the use of lipstick, which her royal footman of eight years, Ian Scott Hunter, explained was used to make an important signal.
He made the revelation on a special episode of Antiques Roadshow, which celebrated 'the reign and long life of Her Majesty the Queen'.
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The footman explained that the Queen was often seen applying brightly coloured lipstick in public for a reason that had nothing to do with her appearance.
He said: "I believe there’s etiquette that ladies do not make their faces up in public.
"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."
However, it turns out that the Queen didn't just use her lipstick to send a signal to her aides, her handbag served a similar function too.
Her handbag was typically placed to her left hand side, however, she would move it to the right to let her aids know that she wanted to end a conversation.
These revelations come as the world looks back on the life of the Queen after her death on Thursday (September 8) and head of her funeral next Monday (September 19).
At the moment of her death, Prince Charles became King Charles III, and he said his mother 'set an example of selfless duty which, with God's help and your counsels, I am resolved faithfully to follow'.
In his first speech as King, he said of his late mother: "Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never waivered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss."
The King went on to pay tribute to his family, including Harry and Meghan who stepped down as senior royals in 2020, before thanking his mother for her service.
"And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you.
"Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years.
"May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'."