[imagesource: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images]

Steven Kaye watched a documentary going “backstage” at Buckingham Palace, wrote the Queen a letter to inquire about a job, and then became Her Majesty’s footman for three and a half years.

Now the former royal footman is sharing a few titbits about his experiences working under the Queen in an exclusive interview with Slingo.

Anyone with an ounce of fascination for the British Royal Family has wondered about life behind the palace doors.

Kaye, having lived alongside the Queen for a solid amount of time, has quite a few stories to tell.

Speaking about the moment he was introduced to his new boss, Kaye noted how Her Majesty has a “really lovely” way of putting you at ease.

After significant bowing, the Queen had a little chit-chat with Kaye:

“She said welcome to the Royal household, I’m looking forward to seeing you next week and she had obviously been briefed about my mother who is a machinist for a company based in Long Eaton where I’m from. They have the Royal warrant of appointment for providing soft furniture to the Royal household and the Queen spoke about how she knew my mother was working for a Royal warranted company. She’s obviously briefed to make you feel at ease and like she knows something about you. It was really lovely.”

Although, if there is one thing the Queen cannot stand, it is sloppiness:

Steven explains, “…with any job where there has to be perfection, there’s always going to be a lot of mistakes. But, as long as you correct those mistakes quickly, I don’t think the Queen really minds. She doesn’t like sloppiness, so given that it’s an accident and not deliberate, she’s usually OK.”

In one little anecdote, he mentioned how the under-butler had forgotten to put candles out on the dining table, which was a mistake as the Queen wanted dinner by candlelight because the lights suddenly started flickering.

While they were running around trying to find candles, he said the “Queen was virtually sitting in the dark”.

Image: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Kaye also described how Her Majesty is sometimes willing to drop her airs and graces around certain people, per Woman&Home:

Detailing a time when the staff was waiting for the Queen to come back from a drive around Balmoral, he says,” The Queen walks in, she has a pheasant in one hand and a gun in the other, she puts them in the corner, puts the dogs in this pen.”

Then, when Her Majesty sits to dine, Steven explains “…what I found interesting is that she sat with her elbows on the table as she was eating. I just didn’t expect that.”

“You’ve always had that etiquette rule, ‘elbows off the table’, but if it’s good enough for the Queen, then it’s good enough for all of us. I think it’s her way of making her guests feel relaxed. She’d always sit there and pick at the food with her elbows on the table.”

He also speaks of how the Queen does indeed have a great sense of humour, recalling the time Prince Philip told her to “smell your fingers” whilst they were fiddling with a wheel of super stinky cheese that they received as a gift.

He also reckons the Queen would subtly tease Royal staffers by making them bow and curtsy numerous times upon her return to the palace after a day out.

You can read the full interview here, with tales about the Queen’s corgis, her favourite place to be, and the time Kaye met Joan Collins as a guest at the palace.

[sources:slingo&womanandhome]