IIRC HM the Queen does not have a passport or a driving licence. Nor do her cars have registration plates. Is this a privilege exclusive to the reigning monarch? Did HM take driving lessons and get a licence at some point then stop having a licence on ascending to the throne? Does this mean Prince Charles will be able to dispense with such formalities when he becomes King?
I know that foreign diplomats get a free licence swap without the need to do a test. Then there's the matter of unpaid parking and speeding fines, congestion charge, etc...
Not royal-bashing here, just curious.
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I think HRH was an army ambulance driver during WWII so she probably does have a licence.
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My mother was a WW2 ambulance driver. She met my father when he was a police officer on points duty and she took a junction too wide at speed and knocked him over !
Later when they were married he always maintained that they couldn't "afford" a second car and anyway it would have been "ungentlemanly" to ask my mother to drive. .........Yeah right !
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As far as I know, if you passed the army test to drive a lorry, (in fact I dont think there was a test - you were "taught" and that was it) this was coverted to a standard UK driving license. (the the famous little cardboard book)
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< Ulla>
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My Dad never took a test. He was born in 1907. ( I didn't grace this planet until 1958 BTW ! )
As far as I know he bought his first car ( Morgan 3 wheeler ) and simply went to the post office and bought a driving licence. His father then showed him what to do and off he went.
We once calculated that he had averaged 20,000 miles per year over 50 years, plus rather less after retiring. He never had a "ticket" for anything or an accident and I have to say, exhibited fabulous car control.
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As far as I know he bought his first car ( Morgan 3 wheeler ) ... and I have to say, exhibited fabulous car control...
The Morgan 3-wheeler (with the J.A Preston V-twin?) - probably the best intro to minute & subtle car control there was (is). Obviously stood him in good stead for the subsequent 'easy' 4-wheelers!
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My Pa in law and his brothers decided to have a weekend away to Blackpool from Hackney in the early 1930's. None of them have ever driven. They got a few crates of Mackeson or whatever, went to a dealer, got an old banger and drank drove all the way there. He drove well into the 1960's but I don't think he ever held a license.
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My Dad drove a lorry for the army in WW2. Amongst other activities. I remember him taking his test in 1960. I was in the back at every opportunity when he went out with a neighbour for lessons so I don't think there was any automatic entitlement to a civvy licence, though I may be wrong.
JH
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Military drivers in WW2, and for some time after, didn't need a licence - without any test they could get a licence subsequently.
Only the reigning monarch can use a car with no number plate.
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My father took a lorry test with a Foden (I think) ten-tonner in the Army in 1941, aged 18, before leaving for Burma. I still have the piece of paper recording his score and the pass. That's the only test he ever took as far as I am aware. The piece of paper got him an ordinary licence when he was demobbed. He spent the next 20-odd years driving lorries all over UK and Europe but when the HGV licence was introduced about 1970 he didn't have to take a test either - just a medical.
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She has no license and no number plates because they are issued by the "Crown" which effectively is her-neither can she be taken to Court as prosecutions are brought by the "Crown"(as in Crown v.****) and she can't prosecute herself.Members of the Armed Forces at that time could apply for a "Certificate of Competence" when leaving the Forces and this could be exchanged for a civilian license.As to whether she was taught to drive as a WRAC,remember she only served for a few weeks,despite all the photos and other publicity.
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queen born 1926 war started 1939 that makes queenie a 13 year old ambulance driver? dont think so
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WWII lasted 6 years - Queenie an 18 year old ambulance driver - I think so.
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WWII lasted 6 years - Queenie an 18 year old ambulance driver - I think so. i didnt think i would get anyone to bite , but hey i was wrong
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>> i didnt think i would get anyone to bite but hey i was wrong
Hey Thats a good one, I must remember to use that excuse next time I am caught out. ;)
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< Ulla>
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In 1945, Princess Elizabeth convinced her father that she should be allowed to contribute directly to the war effort. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she was known as No 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, trained as a driver, and drove a military truck while she served. She was the first, and so far only, female member of the royal family to actually serve in the armed forces, although every monarch is nominally the Commander-in-Chief
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< Ulla>
Edited by Altea Ego on 13/12/2007 at 13:34
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She was 19 by the end of the war.
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I would doubt that HRH has actually driven on public roads at all, almost certainly not since 1952. She does of course have several vehicles and several thousand acres of private land on which to drive them should she wish.
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She is often seen driving the landie around the royal estates. Usually full of dogs, royal protection officers, and guns.
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< Ulla>
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She used to drive a nice old Rover 3-litre, quite often on the road I seem to remember but not so much in London perhaps. Security is much tighter now than it was when the Queen came to the throne. Nevertheless for official movements round town she and other really top cats have extremely efficient and low-key outriders who clear a path immediately in front of the limo plus one discreet carload of heavies, making remarkably little real disturbance to the 'normal traffic flow' (LOL). I once tried to race her up Shaftesbury Avenue by cutting through the bottom of Soho, but the first outrider just pipped me at the exit of Old Compton St into Cambridge Circus, and I had to wait a few seconds. I would like to be able to say a kid-gloved middle finger had been shown to me as she swept past, but that would be extreme social climbing as well as frankly untrue.
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I've seen here drive once, up in Scotland on a single track road with passing places, long long time ago. I was stopped in the passing place and got a wave. Can't remember seeing a second car with heavies. ISTR it was a landie.
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My grandfather also had to stop on a single track road near Balmoral. The oncoming car was being driven by Prince Philip. This was in the early 1960s.
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Her majesty does indeed drive and I think enjoys the independence she gets when driving at Balmoral . I am sure she is the same as my father , who was born in 1904 who never took a driving lesson or a test. I still have somewhere in the attic a licence issued to him by the Northumberland County Council in 1936.
There was the recent story which rang true , related I believe by Gyles Brandreth of Philip driving at speed in Windsor Great Park and Her Majesty who was with him in the car made some comment on his speed to which the reply was -'if you don't shut up I'll put you out of the car and you can walk back'...
.......and she zipped it.
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I'd hate to not have a numper plate ~ I rely on having one to identify which is my car in the carpark!
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I'd hate to not have a numper plate ~ I rely on having one to identify which is my car in the carpark!
But the Queen knows hers is the only car without a numper plate,or a number plate, when she is looking for it in Netto's car park.
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She would only need to follow the red carpet back to the car...
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Not having a number plate is the ultimate personalised number plate.
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Not having a number plate is the ultimate personalised number plate.
Or a sign it's (or they've) been stolen or fallen off.
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So if I take my plates off, have I cloned the royal car, and she gets my speeding tickets?
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< Ulla>
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So if I take my plates off have I cloned the royal car and she gets my speeding tickets?>>
Yes, wear a head scarf for the photo and you should be OK.
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wear a head scarf
and shave.
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The Queen did have an ordinary licence which she got while serving in the WRAC - the driving instructor held on to it and, I believe, either gave or sold it on during his life. It was presented back to the Queen when she opened the Adjutant General's Corps Museum in Winchester last year.
My grandfather insisted my mother (b.1922) took the test - it was not compulsory then - which she took at 9 am and involved going round Hyde Park Corner.
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The WRAC wasn't formed until 1st February 1949 - the Queen served with it's predecessor, the ATS.
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Presumably they changed the name when they finally spotted the initials of The Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service.
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www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5545.asp
"In early 1945 the Princess was made a Subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). By the end of the war she had reached the rank of Junior Commander, having completed her course at No. 1 Mechanical Training Centre of the ATS and passed out as a fully qualified driver."
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Does the Queen (or indeed the Duke of Edinburgh) still drive cars anyway? I know they used to but, like a lot of over 80's, I wonder if they have hung up their keys.
I'm not saying that over 80's should give up driving, only that a lot of people by that age do give up because of eyesight problems.
Re. Number plates - I think there a few other anomalies akin to the monarch not having one at all. I think it's the Lord Mayor of Edinburgh's official car that carries (or used to carry) the registration S 0.
There is also a tradition that farmers do not display number plates or working indicators on trailers towed by tractors or Land Rovers.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 14/12/2007 at 16:03
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One more curiosity (Source: Wikipedia)
The official car of the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also does not carry plates (but only for the duration of the week-long General Assembly).
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The car for the Lord Provost of Glasgow certainly carries G0. The story was that when a car was first acquired G1 was wanted, but it had already been issued and the chap who had it refused to give it up, so a special G0 plate was wangled. I was once in the then Rolls P III in the small hours, when a car was urgently needed to get power restored for the first morning tramcar and Central Garage's taxi type Austins were all engaged; it had served through the war and was not as smooth as I thought it should be.
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I'm not disputing reality, but how can G0 be issued? The original system of registrations didn't allow leading zeros.
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she does drive her own land rover without security in some parts of scotland on the estate and public roads
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and she does donuts down at Tescos car park in Balmoral
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>>>>>>Re. Number plates - I think there a few other anomalies akin to the monarch not having one at all. I think it's the Lord Mayor of Edinburgh's official car that carries (or used to carry) the registration S 0.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Edinburgh does not have a Lord Mayor - indeed, no Scottish town or city has one. The head of Edinburgh is the Lord Provost. And the registration S0 was owned by the council when they had an official Rolls Royce. Since they've downgraded to commoners cars, they rarely use the reg these days.
And the queen does drive on her own - has been see to use a Discovery (which has reg plates) in Holyrood Park and a Defender at Balmoral (which also has reg plates
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>> But the Queen knows hers is the only car without a numper plate
There is a story about Lyndon Johnson, who after visiting some US Marine establishment headed for what he thought was his helicopter among several others parked on the tarmac. A Marine Colonel - a very grand officer in the US - made the mistake of laying a hand on the great man's arm and attempting to redirect him with the words: 'Mr President, that is not your helicopter... It's over here.'
LBJ stopped, looked at the brass hat with a wintry smile and said: 'Son: they're ALL my helicopters.' Then he got into the wrong helicopter and after a bit of fussing around and refuelling and so on was flown away in it.
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>>Edinburgh does not have a Lord Mayor - indeed, no Scottish town or city has one. The head of Edinburgh is the Lord Provost.
OK, OK, I stand corrected, but I was right about the S 0!
Lord Provost, Mayor, Lord Mayor - well they are all suits in gold chains!
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