Queen Elizabeth once attended a Women’s Institute meeting during a power cut.
The late monarch – who died on Thursday (08.09.22), aged 96 – joined the community-based organisation in 1933 as a princess and she rarely missed a meeting at the Sandringham branch, even once insisting on attending a meeting in darkness.
Yvonne Browne, the vice president of the Women’s Institute, said: “In 2018 we had the biggest storm of all time and we were frantically speaking with the electricity board all morning.
“There was absolutely no way the power was coming back on but the queen decided she was coming, I met her at the door and we walked in and the ladies sang ‘God Save the Queen’ and after we had finished, she said ‘Well, I can hear you, but I can’t see you!'”
Yvonne also remembers how the queen would hint that it was her time to leave a meeting.
Speaking on ‘This Morning’, Yvonne explained: “The queen always had three people with her sitting at her table and you always knew she was going to leave because the chair would go back slightly and the handbag would come up and the lipstick would come out!”
Queen Elizabeth was introduced to the institution – which has sought to offer opportunities for women since 1915 – by the Queen Mother and she opened the 100th annual meeting of the Women’s Institute at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2015.
In her speech, she said: “There has been significant economic and social change since 1915. Women have been granted the vote, British women have climbed Everest for the first time and the country has elected its first female prime minister. In the modern world, the opportunities for women to give something of value to society are greater than ever, because, through their own efforts, they now play a much greater part in all areas of public life.
“In 2015, it continues to demonstrate that it can make a real difference to the lives of women of all ages and cultural backgrounds, in a spirit of friendship, cooperation, and support.”