Queen says King would be ‘delighted’ to see 1950s photograph of great-uncle Lord Mountbatten

The Queen said the King would be “delighted” to see a photograph a well-wisher in Shrewsbury had kept safe since he took it in the 1950s in the hopes of sharing it with the royal family.

Bill Stanley, a former musician with the Roger James Four, said it was a “thrill” to be able to show the photograph he had taken when he met Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1958 to Camilla as she visited Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, known as the precursor to modern skyscrapers, on Wednesday.

Mr Stanley, now 77, was 12 when he met Lord Mountbatten at his country home Broadlands in Hampshire.

Remembering their close relationship, Mr Stanley said he believed the King would like to see the photograph of his great-uncle.

He said: “I spent the day with Lord Mountbatten and he said to me, ‘would you like to take a picture?’ because I had with me a Brownie box camera, so I took a picture and I have been waiting until today for a casual opportunity to tell them I had this photo.

“(Camilla) said: ‘My husband will be delighted’. She was just delighted with the story. It was such a thrill.

“Lord Mountbatten and King Charles were the greatest of friends, Charles really loved him, so I think he might find that touching.

“I was going to write to him but it seemed so informal and that’s not me. This was an informal way of showing her. I thought it was pretty neat.”

Mr Stanley was at the Queen’s second engagement of the day as part of the Royal Voluntary Service, who helped him after he had a stroke three years ago.

Camilla sat down with Mr Stanley and others from the charity as they made spring wreaths.

The Queen joined in with the wreath-making, saying: “If I had the time, I could make this look very nice.”

As she was led into the side room to take part in the arts and crafts, Camilla joked that she hoped it was not going to be tap dancing that she would be taking part in.

During the visit, in which the Queen met representatives from charities and organisations including the Shrewsbury Food Hub and Save Our Shropshire, she was also handed an English copy of the Quran by John Mustafa, of the Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum.

Mr Mustafa, 65, said: “I was really glad she accepted my gift. We all need to learn from each other’s faith and those holy books are the main platform for that so I’m really glad I could do that on behalf of the interfaith forum and the Shrewsbury Muslim Centre.

“We were supposed to meet the King but it got cancelled because of his ill health. We did wish him a good and quick recovery and also the princess as well, (the Queen) said: ‘Thank you very much.’”

The Queen also met a volunteer from the Shrewsbury Repair Cafe who lost her husband to prostate cancer in 2021.

Tracey Hanan, 56, showed the Queen the engraved wooden board that her wedding cake was displayed on when she married husband Tony in 2017.

Mr Hanan died at the age of 72 after they had two years of “bliss and health” together following their wedding.

Mrs Hanan said: “I had this on my table and it was just really faded, and I could hardly read the writing.

“It was so sad it was fading and it was like Tony was fading away, so finding the repair cafe was amazing.

“They were amazing. Now I volunteer with them because they did such a wonderful thing for me.”

Explaining her interaction with the Queen, Mrs Hanan said: “She just said it was lovely that it was so personal to me. I lost my husband to prostate cancer so she is probably finding out all about that.

“She liked the idea of the repair cafe and I think that sort of thing is close to her heart.”