The Guernsey goat that nibbled the Queen's bouquet

Charities and organisations in Guernsey that the Queen was patron of are reminiscing about their favourite memories of the Queen.

One story that stands out for Ray Watts, President of the Royal Guernsey Agricultural and Horticultural Society, is when a goat began to nibble the Queen's bouquet of red carnations.

Ray met Her Majesty and her husband Prince Philip in Guernsey when they visited a small show of Queen's Cup winners in 1989.

As the Queen chatted to the crowd, a hungry goat began to munch on her bouquet, making the crowd laugh.

Spotting the greedy goat eating the red flowers, Ray remembers how Prince Philip joked: "I expect you'll all have red milk on your table tomorrow".

Ray says the Queen's patronage puts the Society "on another level". He hopes its relationship with the Crown will continue following the passing of its patron.

He says: "At shows and everything we invite the Governor as the Queen's representative and I think they get quite a kick out of coming and meeting the local farming and horticultural population.

"I think it would be very sad if we lost that."

The Queen became the patron of Girl-guiding UK in 1953, and now the girls and leaders at Girl-guiding Guernsey are spending time reflecting on what her support meant to them.

Collette Merrien, Bailiwick Commissioner of Girl-guiding Guernsey, says: "The fact that she wanted to become our patron when she was Queen was really special.

"And she always had a presence about her within Girl-guiding. She was always interested in what we were doing and when she used to come and visit everyone always used to turn out to see her."

The Royal British Legion are also under the Queen's patronage, and form parades for Royal visits and other state occasions.

Bob Place, President of the Royal British Legion Guernsey, was a Parade Commander for the Queen's visit in 2005.

He says: "Whenever there's a ceremonial parade, we obviously feel it because we're all ex-service personnel and that's what touches us."

For Bob, and all the ex-servicemen in Guernsey, the Queen is all they have ever known. Bob says members of the Legion are wondering what will be next for the organisation following her death.

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