09/09/2022
Monday the 2nd of June 2008 will always be ‘the day I met The Queen’.
She unveiled a painting I had done of her namesake, the Queen Elizabeth 2, the famous Cunard Liner which was shortly to retire.
After drawing back the curtain she walked over to me and began a conversation which turned out to be rather longer than I, or anyone else expected. A handshake and possibly a ‘well done’ was all I had hoped for.
After a few minutes she said, ‘where is the Monkey?’ – obviously she had been briefed beforehand as I almost always hide a caricature of a monkey somewhere in my paintings but never tell anyone where it is. ‘I cannot say’ I replied. She smiled and with a twinkle in her eye said she still had the authority to dispatch me to ‘The Tower’ (of London).
Later that year ‘The Palace’ wondered if would be possible to produce a jigsaw puzzle of the painting as the Royal Family like to do a puzzle at Christmas. Two were made specially, one dispatched to the Palace and the other I now treasure at home.
I heard later that she found the Monkey!
For me, the World will never be quite the same without ‘The Queen’ – there was only one.
God save the King
-- Robert Lloyd
