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egional planning and local administration; he served as a county councillor and
alderman. He was a Verderer of the New Forest, was High Steward of Winchester, an
honorary fellow of Portsmouth Polytechnic and an honorary Doctor of Science of the
University of Reading, an influential member of the Jockey Club, and a member of
White’s Club, the Portland (a London bridge club for experts who are not afraid of high
stakes) and Hampshire Cricket Club. His grandfather was famous as the discoverer with
Howard Carter of the tomb of Tutankhamun. For Elizabeth, one of his principal virtues
was not just his knowledge of and enthusiasm for racing and breeding horses, or even as
a loyal friend whom she could entirely trust, but also that her father liked him. They
shared interests in shooting and the conservation of game and the lore of the
countryside. Porchester was one of the few young men whom the King would invite out
shooting with his own friends, all expert shots, such as the Queen’s brother, David
Bowes-Lyon, and Lord Eldon. The young Porchester had started shooting at an early age
and was already very knowledgeable in those post-war years at Sandringham and
Balmoral; the King would quite often put him next to him in the line where all the birds
were driven, which was a great honour. Porchester founded the Game Research
Association, a subject which fascinated the King, who summoned all the Sandringham
keepers to a lecture on partridge rearing in the private cinema. ‘He asked them all if
there were any questions they’d like to ask afterwards,’ Porchester remembered, ‘and of
course there was dead silence. I think the Norfolk keepers reckoned they knew enough
about it without any research.’
At the first Ascot party at Windsor after the war, Porchester committed lèse-majesté
and was still forgiven. Both the King and Porchester had had winners that day and were
in a celebratory mood when the Duke of Beaufort (the Master of the Horse, one of
Altrincham’s ‘second-rate lot’) tapped the table and got up to say, ‘With the King’s
permission I’d like to propose a toast to the first winner the King has had at Royal
Ascot.’ The King, who hated making impromptu speeches, got up and said, nervously
and abruptly, ‘Thank you, but someone else won a race today at Ascot and he can
answer the toast for me’, and sat down leaving young Porchester appalled at the
prospect of addressing the assembled guests in the vast Waterloo Chamber on the King’s
behalf. Hardly knowing what he was saying, he ventured a topical joke – the name of
one of the best-known jockeys of the day, Charlie Smirke, a notoriously sharp rider,
came into his mind. He blurted out, ‘I don’t suppose there are many people who have
had a “Charlie Smirke” done on them by the Monarch.’ There was a deathly silence.
Then the King laughed and everyone else followed suit, but, as Porchester remembered,
‘it was quite a nerve-racking moment’. As they left the room, Ulick Alexander, the
Keeper of the Privy Purse, told Porchester, ‘Well, I suppose you just got away with
that.’ 5
Like her father, but unlike her mother and her sister, Elizabeth does not appreciate
intellectuals and writers. Daphne du Maurier, staying at Balmoral during her husband’s
tenure as Comptroller of the Duke of Edinburgh’s household, found Philip quick and easy
to talk to but Elizabeth heavy-going. Elizabeth, bright and sure of herself when it came