[PW] story about the Queen Mum and a lost child

[Bye, Dan J]

I found the story courtesy of LexisNexis:


The Times
November 18, 1997
"QUEEN ELIZABETH the Queen Mother played the Good Samaritan to a young girl who fell off her bicycle in Windsor Great Park (Alan Hamilton writes). 
The Queen Mother, who is 97, was returning on Sunday from Windsor Castle to her weekend home at Royal Lodge near by in a chauffeur-driven Range Rover when she came across the girl, who was with her father and two other children. The Queen Mother ordered her chauffeur to stop and he attended to the girl's cuts with the car's first aid kit. Buckingham Palace said that the Queen Mother had offered the family a lift to their car but the father declined."

Press Association
November 17, 1997
by Martin Hickman
"The Queen Mother stopped her car to help an injured five-year-old girl who had fallen off her bicycle in front of her, it emerged tonight. The 97-year-old instructed her chauffeur to give first aid to the youngster, whose face was said to be bleeding after the accident on the Long Walk in Windsor Great Park. The compassionate Royal even offered to put the girl's bike in her Range Rover and give her and her father a lift home - but they turned down the offer. According to The Sun, the girl did not recognise the Queen Mother and told her: "I'm not supposed to take lifts from strangers." After several minutes her father reportedly said she was well enough to walk home. The accident, which has been confirmed by Clarence House, happened on Sunday as the Queen Mother was driven home to the Royal Lodge after lunch with the Queen at Windsor Castle. While looking into the distance along the Long Walk, she noticed the child had fallen off her bike and instructed her car to stop. Fearful that the girl may have been seriously hurt on the gravel lane, the Queen Mother offered assistance to the family. Both the girl and her father soon left the scene and have not been traced."


Note that the story is credited to the taboid Sun by the Press Association.

A NewsUK search found a story in the Sun of 19 November 1997 (p.7).   They seem to have interviewed the girl in question, named as seven year old Georgina Field. Her father is named as Robert (a 43 year old solicitor from Windlesham, Surrey - I checked and there is a solicitor of that name who would be a good match), and he is quoted as saying that Georgina wouldn't go alone in a car with a stranger to a nearby police lodge. A sister (Lydia, 9) and a brother (Christian, 3) are also named, along with her mother (Ceza, 39).  There are differences in details. In the Sun's account it is the Queen Mother who applies first aid, rather than her chauffeur.  The little girl is quoted to that effect, too. But this is The Sun. 

And The Sun first reported the story on its front page of 18 November 1997.  The car is here described as a "Limo" (a Daimler) rather than the Range Rover it is in most other stories.

I found a great deal of other stuff, but most of it is far too sickly to be relating to grown ups on this list.


Dan



> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On 
> Behalf Of DRPayne at stkate.edu
> Sent: 29 August 2007 17:07
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] story about the Queen Mum and a lost child
> 
> 
> 
> Richard Dawkins briefly mentions this story on page 144 of 
> "Unweaving the Rainbow" (Dawkins, R. 1998. Unweaving the 
> rainbow: science, delusion, and the appetite for wonder. 
> Boston: Houghton Mifflin.). Here is Dawkin's rendition in its 
> entirety:
> 
> "A charming story recently appeared in the English newspapers 
> in which Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, aged 97, told her 
> chauffeur to stop the car when she noticed a crying child who 
> was apparently lost. The kind old lady got out to comfort the 
> little girl and offered to take her home. 'I can't,' wailed 
> the child, 'I'm not allowed to talk to strangers.'"
> 
> I was not, unfortunately, able to locate an account in the 
> British press.
> 
> Hope this is helpful!
> 
> Dave Payne
> MLIS Student
> The College of St. Catherine