Queen Elizabeth II spent a good amount of her life traveling around the world — in fact, she was in Africa when she found out her father had died and she had become queen. And while serving as monarch, she had specific ideas about how to enjoy her time at 32,000 feet.
The queen liked to have a bowl of Velva mints by her side and in her dressing room when she flew, according to confidential instructions given to a British Airways flight attendant for a 1989 royal flight during a tour of Malaysia and Singapore. The instructions are among memorabilia from the flight attendant who once served the monarch that are up for auction this month.
The instructions added that she “tends to like a Martini before her guests arrive,” and the crew was warned to let the queen sleep if she wasn’t awake upon landing.
Queen Elizabeth II, who embarked on more than 250 overseas flights during her 70-year reign, also preferred to have her own pillows on the plane and wanted her bed made up in a particular way, the 1989 instructions said.
The instructions were found among former British Airways (BA) flight attendant Elizabeth Evans’ belongings at her home in South Africa by her niece after her death in 2017.
“Having found this treasure trove relating to my aunt’s career and experiences with BA, especially the fantastic trips on Concorde and serving the Queen, I found it sad that none of it had seen the light of day,” Jo Smallwood told Hanson Auctioneers. “I believe this collection is a little piece of history that should be shared and enjoyed by somebody.”
The collection of Evans’ memorabilia also includes signed menu cards and autographs from celebrities from her years as a flight attendant starting in 1970, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Patrick Swayze, Billie Jean King and Rod Stewart.
It is expected to sell for between $500 to nearly $800 over the next week.
“I was aware of some of the things Elizabeth had kept from her career with BA but nothing on this scale,” Smallwood said. “She married late in life, moving to Devon and finally Hermanus in South Africa. The objects were found there in her study following her death at the age of 70 in 2017. I came across them when I travelled to South Africa to arrange the funeral.”
Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers, added: “Elizabeth was clearly highly regarded by BA because she served some of the most important people in the world. Take that 1989 British Airways Royal Flight. Her memorabilia includes confidential instructions on how to care for our late Queen and Prince Philip — right down to the sweets Her Majesty preferred on take-off.”
“Different members of the royal family will have different attitudes to trips away and in what they pack and some members of the royal family are very particular as to what they wear and how they wear it,” etiquette coach William Hanson said on the 2022 docuseries “A Royal Guide To…” regarding packing for a royal tour. “And there’s a lot of changing of clothing, and it’s new outfits almost every quarter of the day, and they could be away for two or three weeks.”
When packing for a trip, royals are also required to bring one solemn item.
“Members of the royal family do always have to travel with a black outfit,” Hanson said. “Black dress, black hat, black gloves, black tie, a very dark suit. In case tragedy strikes.”
This rule may have originated when then-Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya in February 1952 when she found out her father, King George VI, had died, and she had to return to Britain.
“She’s only four days into the tour, so suddenly she had to come back, very, very long flight, but they haven’t got a black dress,” royal expert and historian Wesley Kerr explained in the docuseries. “And it’s a very solemn moment in which she’s going to come down the steps at Heathrow where [Prime Minister Winston] Churchill is waiting, but there’s a bit of a delay while she changes into a black dress. So you couldn’t have a more dramatic start to a reign or a more sad start to a reign.”
