Lady Anne Glenconner, who served as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, has recalled an extraordinary moment when the royal spontaneously took down a chandelier – with no idea how to put it back together.
Lady Anne, 94, worked for the Royal Family for decades and witnessed the Firm go through trials and tribulations throughout the second half of the 20th century. In her role as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, who died at the age of just 71 in 2002, she got to see the senior royal up close and personal.
Lady Anne, who recently published a memoir entitled Trunks and Tiaras: Journeys Through Life with Friends, Family, and a Princess, spoke to Hello! about one particular incident in which she caught Margaret taking apart a treasured item in her home, reports the Mirror.
A spontaneous decision
She described an occasion when Margaret, who she said enjoyed cleaning her car, seemingly decided out of nowhere to dismantle a chandelier, apparently giving no consideration to how she would reassemble it afterwards.
Lady Anne recalled: "She loved cleaning my car and she had a huge pair of yellow Marigold gloves. I had a chandelier and, to my horror, she managed to get that down. I don't know how she did it. She started taking off bits, and I said, 'Well, ma'am, how do you know how to put it back together again?' and she was a bit taken aback, because she'd rather forgotten about that."
Prince William incident
Although Lady Anne is most often associated with Princess Margaret, she has also spoken about other senior royals, including future monarch Prince William. In an excerpt from her latest book, she describes how the prince was left "terrified" when his grandmother tore a strip off him after he wandered away from a riding party at around eight years old.
The incident occurred while Lady Anne was at Balmoral, where the Royal Family had gathered for a major get-together in August 1990. She told the Daily Mail: "Everything was going smoothly until I was waiting for Princess Margaret in the castle later in the afternoon and heard raised voices coming from outside. I peered out of the window and saw The Queen tearing a strip off Prince William, who was on his pony on the drive. He must have been around eight-years-old."
Prince William had been out riding with the groom and his cousins and had returned to the castle on his own without letting anyone know. The grooms had been frantic looking for him. "You can imagine how terrified they were in case he had fallen and hit his head with no one knowing where he was," she said.
