Latest news with #AilsaAnderson
Times
2 hours ago
- General
- Times
The Queen did carry cash for a flutter
Despite having her likeness plastered all over the stuff, the late Queen appeared to display a certain aversion to cash. During her reign it was widely assumed that Her Majesty invariably travelled light, relying on equerries and sundry flunkies to stump up the odd bob should she be confronted with a sudden urge, or obligation, to purchase an item, like a Women's Institute jar of homemade lemon curd or a tartan pin cushion from a Highland Games charity stall. The only exception to this pleasingly penniless existence was recorded in a ground-breaking documentary on the royal family in 1969, during which the monarch was witnessed buying an ice lolly for a five-year-old Prince Edward in a village shop near Balmoral. However, it now turns out that the Queen was anything but averse to splashing the cash. Speaking on The Times podcast The Royals, Ailsa Anderson, the Queen's press secretary, has revealed that her employer would now and then indulge in a flutter at the races, dispatching an equerry to the course bookmaker armed with a wad of her mint's finest. The result on one occasion was a £16 win, which provoked an outburst of royal delight out of all proportion to the sum involved. In a sense, we are all queens now. Cash is becoming a niche form of exchange, increasingly supplanted by cards and smartphones. A NatWest survey last year suggested that only 8 per cent of British adults use cash exclusively. Nevertheless, the end of the folding stuff (moolah, wonga, lolly, bread and dough) is far from assured. Cash use ticks up in periods of uncertainty, especially among people who don't have much of it. Studies suggest that the brain registers more pain when parting with hard currency than when tapping a card. And, as Her Majesty understood, there is certain pleasure in handling the pound sterling, especially when one's face is staring right back at one.
Times
8 hours ago
- General
- Times
Late Queen carried cash for bets at the races, ex-aide reveals
For years it was thought that the late Queen did not handle cash, save for a neatly folded banknote in her handbag for the collection at church on Sunday. A former aide of Elizabeth II has now revealed that there was one other occasion when the late monarch carried a stash of the folding stuff: at the races. Ailsa Anderson, the late Queen's press secretary, has revealed that while Her Majesty did not place a bet herself, she was known to hand cash to an equerry who would carry out the task for her. Until now, it was assumed Queen Elizabeth II never carried cash except for a neatly folded note for church Speaking on The Times podcast The Royals, Anderson said: 'It would be done through the equerry.' When asked if she handed over cash she said: 'Yes, absolutely. She didn't place [the bet] herself but the race cards were there.'
