Former Bailiff remembers a fun and dutiful Queen
SIR DE VIC CAREY has been remembering the Queen’s good sense of humour as he reminisces on her visits to the island.
He was Bailiff for the Queen’s last two visits to Guernsey.
In all, he said, he saw her on five of the six visits she made to the Bailiwick, but 2001 was the most memorable.
‘It was the first time she stayed overnight on the island and I had the honour of sitting next to her at dinner,’ he said.
The then-senior States member and president of the Board of Administration, Roger Berry, was sitting at the same table.
‘It was fortunate that Roger was there as he was able to talk to the Queen about hunting, shooting and fishing, of which I knew nothing,’ said Sir de Vic.
He said his only memories of the Queen were good ones.
‘She had a great sense of humour, was so much fun, and had a strong faith,’ he said.
‘What also struck me was the consideration she had for other people.’
In 2005, for the 60th anniversary of Liberation, the Queen and Prince Philip made a flying visit here in the morning before moving on to Jersey in the afternoon.
‘The first thing she did when getting here was to apologise for being late and she said it was because of air
traffic control at RAF Northolt, which had delayed her flight by 10 minutes.’
Sir de Vic recalled, with his father, seeing the sovereign on her first visit to the Bailiwick as Queen in 1957. By the 1978 visit he was HM Comptroller and in 1989 was presented to her as HM Procureur and HM Receiver General at a dinner aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was moored against the New Jetty.
Nothing appeared to be too much trouble for the monarch who had such a strong sense of duty.
The Queen had seen a dereliction of duty in her family with the abdication of King Edward VIII after 326 days in 1936, which resulted in her father, George VI, becoming King.
‘I think that made her very determined to carry out her sense of duty when the time came – and I’m sure that the Queen Mother helped her a lot too,’ said Sir de Vic.
He had no doubt that King Charles III would do what was required of him and shared his mother’s strong sense of duty.
