Queen Elizabeth II once turned down an invitation to open Bristol Airport’s new terminal and the reason, according to her cousin, is straight out of a royal anecdote.
Lord Ivan Mountbatten, the late Queen’s third cousin once removed, recalled the story on the Rosebud podcast.
He explained that he was travelling to the Scottish Highlands for a shooting weekend with her when airport security stopped him from bringing his shotguns onto the plane.
When he later arrived at Balmoral empty-handed, the Queen was less than impressed. She asked her equerry to make sure the guns were delivered in time for the following day’s shoot, but the situation left her irked with the airport.
“She said to me, They want me to open their new terminal. I don’t think I will now,” Lord Ivan revealed.
True to her word, she declined the invitation, and it was Princess Anne who eventually stepped in to open the terminal in 2015.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten has revealed a very royal reason why Queen Elizabeth II declined to open Bristol Airport’s new terminal and it all began with a dispute over shotguns.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast, Elizabeth’s cousin recalled sitting beside Her Majesty at Balmoral when he shared how airport security had refused to let him fly with his guns for a planned shooting weekend.
“I’m sitting on the right-hand side of the Queen and I’m kind of irritated by this story,” he explained.
“So I repeat it to Her Majesty. And I could see that she was getting rather irritated as well.”
According to Mountbatten, the Queen quickly turned to her equerry, believed to be Simon Brailsford, and instructed: “Simon, I would like Lord Ivar’s guns to be up here tomorrow morning. Please see to it.”
Then, with what he described as a twinkle in her eye, she looked back at him over her glasses and quipped, “They want me to open their new terminal. I don’t think I will now.”
And she never did. Instead, when the Bristol Airport terminal was finally inaugurated in 2015, it was Princess Anne who carried out the royal duty.
Mountbatten added with a chuckle: “Every time I go back to Bristol Airport now, it was opened by the Princess Royal and I have a quiet laugh to myself.”