Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Thank you from the NGO

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The people who live in the British countryside – and the gamekeeping community more specifically – could not have asked for a more loyal supporter of their way of life than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

She was born into a family who were keen on their shooting. But while Her Majesty joined shooting parties from a young age, it was the skilled work in the field that entranced her even more than the shooting itself. Even a young girl, she used to send her corgis to retrieve fallen birds on the Balmoral grouse moor. Fieldsports continued to bring her joy throughout her life; it is believed that just four days before she died she hosted a shooting party at Balmoral for her Bowes-Lyons cousins. 

Her Majesty later acquired her own gun dogs, starting with two black Labradors, Snare and Snape. Her gundogs – both Labradors and cocker spaniels – went on to be some of the most successful in the country at field trials. This includes FTCh Sandringham Sydney, who was a three-time winner at the Game Fair. More recently in January of this year her cocker spaniel Wolferton Drama (otherwise known as Lissy) won the 91st Kennel Club Cocker Spaniel Championship.

David Clark, Honorary President of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, was Head Keeper at the Sandringham Estate for 17 years, a role for which he was made Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen in 2018. Talking to Fieldsports Channel earlier this week, he spoke a little about Her Majesty:

“She had a great passion for people that worked in the countryside and had a great understanding of people who worked in the countryside. But she loved her subjects; she loved her people, of this country and abroad as well. She was a great ambassador and she will be sorely missed by us all. She was fabulous,” he said.

Last Sunday, six Balmoral gamekeepers carried Her Majesty’s oak coffin from the ballroom at Balmoral into the waiting hearse, to then make the six-hour journey to Edinburgh.

This is a Royal tradition; but the decision to uphold that tradition shows the deep respect and that Queen Elizabeth II had for not just her own gamekeepers, but gamekeeping more widely.

On behalf of all gamekeepers, both in this country and elsewhere, the National Gamekeepers' Organisation would like to express its gratitude and thanks to the Royal Family for upholding this tradition. It is both an honour and a privilege for gamekeepers to be able to perform this important role; and even more so given that these keepers were well known to Her Majesty.

The NGO would like to take this opportunity to thank Her Majesty for a lifetime of service and for the recognition and esteem with which she held the gamekeeping community. It was a privilege to have lived under her reign, and we look forward to welcoming King Charles III. From the committee, staff and members of the NGO: thank you, Queen Elizabeth II.