A FORMER council chairman says chatting with the Queen during a royal visit was the highlight of his life.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Maldon in October 2010 and had lunch prepared by the Five Lakes Hotel, Golf and Country Club on the day.

Councillor Robert Long was the chairman of Maldon District Council at the time and accompanied the Queen down the high street and helped her to take flowers offered by the public.

The Queen thanked him for taking the flowers and told him: “I didn’t realise that there were so many people in Maldon.”

The walk to the town hall was scheduled for ten minutes but took 20 because the Queen tried to speak to as many people as she could.

In his speech to the Queen, Mr Long said: “Maldon has always been proud of its Royal Charter of 1171 by the first of the Plantagenet kings, Henry II, the oldest we believe in England, but today we are even more proud to be graced by the presence of our Royal Sovereign.

“Perhaps Your Majesty will allow me to comment that in this ever uncertain and unstable world you have always been this country’s certain and stable influence and an example to us all.”

Mr Long remembers sitting down to lunch with the Queen.

“As I sat down beside her on that day she thanked me for the speech," he said.

“The first thing I said was ‘I have been writing about our kings and queens since school days and I now find myself actually sitting next to my sovereign’ she liked that and smiled.

“I was totally at ease with her and we spoke of many things.

“I commented I had just been made a great grandad. She replied ‘You have just beaten me to it, we are still waiting on Peter’ - her grandson.

“The whole conversation was like talking to a favourite aunt as we covered a range of subjects, all of which I recorded later.

“The one that really stands out referred to the late King George VI.

“She leaned slightly forward and confided, so it seemed, and said: ‘I am worried about the film being made of my father and how he will be treated.’

“My reply assured her that he was greatly loved by the people.

“I then told her that my Welsh mother had always said how handsome he was and that made her smile.

“This was the highlight of a long life for me. I felt we could have talked all day as I introduced topics that would interest her such as the teaching of English history in schools.

“Also Her Majesty wanted to know more about King Henry II and the Maldon connection.”

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