The former director of the Great Yorkshire Show, Bill Cowling, has paid tribute to the Queen who he chaperoned during her last visit in 2008.
Mr Cowling, who is also a retired Deputy Lieutenant of North YorkshireDeputy , said her death was a “tremendous shock” and it felt like losing a family member.
He described the Queen’s visit to the showground in Harrogate as one of the highlights of his career.
He recalled talking to her in the back of a Range Rover and enjoying lunch with her at the president’s pavilion.
He told the Stray Ferret:
“I was so very lucky to have met her. To think I sat and talked to her over an extended period of time was a huge honour. It’s something I shall remember forever.
“Her ability to put me at my ease – and everybody else she met – was an amazing thing. She was such a consummate professional at what she was doing.”
Read more:
- ‘I chatted to the Queen in the back of a Range Rover’: Her Majesty’s many visits to the district
- Flags raised back up to full mast across the district as Charles III proclaimed new sovereign
Mr Cowling said not only was the Queen a lover of animals, but she also had a great appreciation of agriculture and rural life.
He said:
“She knew what she was looking at in the way of horses, but also cattle and sheep. She had a huge interest in all the exhibitors and their livelihoods.”
The Queen unveiling a plaque to commemorate the start of work on the Regional Agricultural Centre in 2008.
Mr Cowling said, like the rest of the nation, he will now start coming to terms with the change.
He said:
“There’s no doubt a change has happened. But I’m confident King Charles III will make a splendid King. Again at the show, I was privileged to have met him a few times and his interest and empathy with rural life is the same.”