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Writer claims he kept quiet about Queen Mother’s ‘racist views’

A high society writer has claimed the Queen Mother held ‘racist’ views that he kept quiet about because they were “too awful”.

Sir Roy Strong, 81, told a literary festival that he kept meticulous diaries of his time spent with various figures – including the Royal Family – which has so far spanned to two volumes of memoirs.

However, the former director of the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum admitted that there were occasions he chose not to record what he heard, according to The Times.

Sir Roy Strong said he kept quiet about the Queen Mother's 'racist' views (Rex)
Sir Roy Strong said he kept quiet about the Queen Mother’s ‘racist’ views (Rex)

He said: “I can remember the Queen Mother came to lunch at Ham House, which was a branch of the V&A, and she said, ‘I will bring the liquid refreshment’, and we all knew what that meant.

“Suddenly in the middle of lunch, I was on the left of her I think, and the Queen was in Africa at the time, and the Queen Mother leant over to me and said, ‘Beware the blackamoors’.

“I thought, ‘I can’t put that down, it’s too awful.’ But one knows she was colour prejudiced.

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“So, I always felt there was a certain streak of me that was protective of things, but on the whole not.”

Sir Strong was a major figure in British artistic circles throughout the 1960s and became a prominent figure on the high society scene during the 1970s and 1980s.

His most recent memoir was published in 2016.

Top pic: Rex