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I was born in England, in a little village called Warfield in Bracknell, which is close to Windsor Castle. My mother Florence adored royalty, so I suspect my passion for it came from her.
Mum corresponded on a regular basis with the Queen, sending letters and cards, and never forgetting an occasion. She would always get a reply. For the coronation, she went to London, standing in the pouring rain among the crowds to watch it.
I came to New Zealand in 1979 with my five children. We landed in Auckland on the day of the Mt Erebus crash. It was an atmosphere of mourning. Everyone I met seemed to know someone involved – it was so sad.
Bill and I got together in 2002. I had been on my own for a long time, so decided to look for a smile on the internet and I found the smile – with long hair, a pony tail and laughing eyes.
Fortunately for me, Bill loved old things – I’m 10 years older than him! He is a collector as well and his passion at the time – aside from American cars – was commemorative royal plates.
We set up an English Royal café, Corogate, where we displayed all our memorabilia, in Thames in 2002. We had people coming from all over. We did a real Devonshire tea, we used china teapots and we had tea cosies. We had one guy bring 10 friends down from Helensville.
They all had the royal burger and they ordered three pots of tea. But they drank coffee – they just wanted me to bring the tea out with tea cosies on. We would dress up, I wore a broderie anglaise apron and a little mop cap, and Bill used to wear his Union Jack waistcoat.
Bill and I got married at the café two weeks before Prince William and Kate’s wedding. We did it for television really – they wanted us to do something in the run-up to the big day. Our guests were the people who were there for afternoon tea. It was screened on the Thursday before the royal wedding.
We made the front page of the Indian Times and were in papers in Singapore, Mexico and in the UK. It was unbelievable, we couldn’t stop laughing. The next six months were madness – we were on every tourist’s itinerary and strangers would stop in with gifts.
Bill’s grandfather set up New Zealand’s first cane pram manufacturers in 1893. It was one of his prams that the government presented to the Queen when she was here in 1953 to take back to Princess Anne for her dolls.
Wanting to know what had happened to it, I was about to write a letter to Princess Anne to ask, when this English gentleman turned up at the café. He took one look around and in a very, very posh voice said, ‘Now I don’t want you to get too excited, but I happen to be very closely related to one of the royal family.’ I almost mimicked him back because I thought he was pulling my leg.
It turned out he is the cousin of Tim Laurence, Princess Anne’s husband. So I asked if, as a favour, he might try and find out where the pram was. He took a photo of the picture we had of Princess Anne with the pram and sent it through to Tim, but he told us it might be a while until we heard back because he was on a world tour.
I had my doubts, but a few months later Buckingham Palace rang to tell me all about the pram. I don’t know his name – we were so chuffed, we forgot to get him to sign the visitor’s book. It was wonderful and I now speak to the palace quite regularly.
We had Corogate Café for 12 years, until I got sick and had to close it. When we made the decision, I cried for three weeks – I was a real mess. We had a massive big farewell party and I cried for another four weeks.
We’ve lived in Te Aroha for 18 months now. We don’t do food any more, but our house is open to the public. There’s no charge but people can make a donation, which we give to charity.
We’ve got more than 8000 items from 1937 onwards, ranging from statuettes to tea sets through to medals, badges, jewellery and items the Queen has used, such as the hand-drawn menu cards from a banquet held in Hamilton.
Plus, we’ve got more than 1000 books, photos and newspaper cuttings – and we’re still collecting. We’ve just received the 70th wedding commemorative plate and urn, and we often get things dropped on the doorstep. Every room – and they are big rooms – is filled with things and each of those rooms tells its own little bit of history.
The next generation of royals? I think they are fantastic; the fresh youth and personality of both Kate and William is wonderful. I’m convinced the Queen will give Charles a year as king and then it will be William’s turn – and my predictions have always been right!”
Quickfire
If I could be a royal for a day, I would be…
The Duchess of Cambridge and be able to play with George and Charlotte.
A royal afternoon tea should always include…
Mr Kipling’s French Fancies and some mini Battenbergs.
My pick for a regal 70th wedding present?
A grand photo album with a cover featuring all the grandchildren with Balmoral Castle in the back-ground. Pictures would include from childhood through to today.
