THE Queen joked about her age in a video call as she spoke publicly for the first time since Prince Philip’s death.
The monarch, 95, described feeling “very proud” after becoming the first young person to receive a lifesaving swimming badge – but quipped “that’s terrible” when learning it was 80 years ago.
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Her Majesty spoke about her teenage years growing up in the Second World War and recalled her pride earning a Junior Respiration Award from the Royal Life Saving Society.
She was 14-years-old when she joined sister Princess Margaret for swimming lessons at the Bath Club, a gentleman’s club in Dover Street, Mayfair, in 1941.
Speaking on a video call with the Royal Life Saving Society released today, she said: “I didn’t realise I was the first one. I just did it, and had to work very hard for it.
“It’s a very long time ago, I’m afraid, I think it’s changed a lot.”
Smiling and in good spirits so soon after her husband the Duke of Edinburgh’s death, she recalled her childhood days during WWII with the society which works across 30 Commonwealth nations to eliminate preventable drowning.
Clive Holland, deputy Commonwealth president of the society, told her: “Your Majesty, when you say it was a long time ago, it was in fact 80 years ago.”
The monarch laughed and replied: “That’s terrible!”
Sarah Downs, 20, a student who saved a little boy’s life when she was on duty as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in Exeter in 2018, asked her for her memories of achieving her award.
The Queen replied: “Well, it’s a very long time ago. I do remember it was of course all done in the Bath Club in the swimming pool.
“And I suppose I didn’t really actually realise quite what I was doing, you know, because I think I must have been 12 or something, 12 or 14 or something like that.
“But it was a great achievement and I was very proud to wear the badge on the front of my swimming suit. It was very grand I thought.”
She asked Sarah, a physiotherapy student at Manchester Metropolitan University, about her own experiences of lifeguarding and how she came to win the society’s Russell Medal in 2018 for resuscitating the boy at Middlemore Pool.
The Russell Medal is awarded annually to someone under 18 years of age for displaying bravery and quick-thinking under pressure.
Sarah explained that while on duty as a lifeguard she was getting arm bands for a boy.
“Whilst I was grabbing the arm bands, one of the children actually had a silent fit under the water,” she said.
“So when I came back to the shallow end, being notified of this child under the water and then getting him out of the pool, I completed CPR on him to resuscitate and bring him back around.”
She told the Queen she was still doing lifeguarding.
“You are. How splendid,” the monarch said. “Do you do it at a swimming pool?”
“Yes, I still do it at a swimming pool. I don’t hold my beach lifeguard qualification just yet,” Sarah replied.
“But you’re trying, are you?” “Yes, I will be soon,” she told the Queen.
The head of state also praised the bravery of another young lifesaver, Tanner Gorille from Cape Town, South Africa, who won the Russell Medal in 2016 after performing resuscitation on a young woman at one of Cape Town’s tidal pools while on volunteer lifeguard duty.
After hearing his story, the Queen said: “That was splendid work you were doing.”
The Royal Life Saving Society was founded in London in 1891 in response to hundreds of preventable drownings happening in the UK.
Drowning remains one of the biggest causes of preventable death in the world today, with an estimated 235,000 fatalities every year.
Around 90 per cent of those deaths occur in poor or middle income countries.
During the video call on WebEx the Queen also virtually presented Dr Stephen Beerman from Nanaimo in British Columbia, Canada, with the King Edward VII Cup, awarded every two years in recognition of outstanding contributions to drowning prevention.
The Queen congratulated Dr Beerman for over 40 years of work to draw attention to drowning and told him: “I’m very delighted to be able to present you with this cup – a very large cup, which one day you might see if you come to London.”
Her virtual engagement with the Royal Life Saving Society, recorded on May 6 but only released today, comes after the United Nations adopted a historic resolution on drowning prevention, formally acknowledging drowning as one of the biggest causes of preventable death in the world today.
The resolution – spearheaded by Bangladesh and Ireland – sets out specific actions for each country to take to prevent drowning, and introduces an annual World Drowning Prevention Day which will be marked for the first time this year on July 25.
