For 40 years, a treasured memory of the day they talked and played with Royalty on an island beach has been an Oban family’s closely-guarded secret.
Alex Campbell was asked to join in a game of football on the sand with the then Prince Charles, taking a penalty against the future King.
His mother shared her jam sandwiches with the Queen as she sat on rocks and chatted with the monarch and Princess Margaret.
The surreal encounter on Vatersay was captured in a photograph with a smiling Charles in shirt sleeves and the Queen’s sister, dressed in headscarf and wellies, posing with Alex and his cousins and a neighbour.
A Royal promise kept for decades
Her Majesty asked Alex’s late mother Chrissie not to share the picture with the media. And for decades that promise was kept.
But the Campbell family now agree, that with the recent passing of the Queen and Charles becoming King, the time is right to share what “down to earth people” the Royal Family are.
Alex, 52, said: “My mother respected the Queen’s wish not to share the pictures with the Press. She passed away on January 12 2004.
“I watched the Queen’s funeral and I was so touched and I felt so sorry for Charles as he has lost his mother. I too lost my mother so I know how it feels.
“After all this time I think the story should be shared to show that the Royal Family are actually down to earth, good people.”
The Royal Family regularly took trips to the Western Isles as part of their many visits to the Highlands and Islands.
Alex was only nine when he spotted a man who he thought looked like Prince Charles jumping off a boat as it approached Vatersay’s South Beach.
Happy family times on Vatersay
“It was 1979 or 1980. Every summer holiday and every school holiday we used to spend on Vatersay.”
His late mother Chrissie and father Duncan Campbell were born and brought up on the island. They moved to Oban in 1966 when Duncan took a job with CalMac, but kept their Vatersay home and returned as often as possible.
While they enjoyed many happy times there, one holiday was particularly memorable.
Alex said: “I can remember the day well. There were four of us. My cousins, Pauline and Laura Birrell and my neighbour from Oban, John ‘the Pon’ Lafferty, who had joined us for the summer holiday.
“We made the trip from Oban on the old Claymore ferry. At that time it was a seven hour journey.
‘He looks like Prince Charles’
“The four of us were playing on the South Beach, about half a mile from the family home.
“Anything that came out of the Atlantic Ocean would land on that beach. We used to find bits of driftwood, and I remember even dinghies used to get washed up there.
“A launch came into the bay and a man jumped off it. I said to my cousin Laura, ‘he looks like Prince Charles,’. I ran home to my mum and said ‘Mum, get the camera, the Royal Family has just landed on the beach’.
“I remember the launch looked a bit like a lifeboat. ‘You look like Prince Charles,’ I said, and he replied along the lines of, ‘My name is Charles, yes’. I ran home to get my mum to confirm this.’
“What I didn’t know at that time was that his mother was with him. I later asked my mum who she was and she explained, ‘that’s the Queen, that’s the Monarch’.
“Charles was the first one off the first boat and pulled the rope onto the beach. The Queen and Princess Margaret came off the second launch.”
He remembers Princes Edward, Charles, The Queen and Princess Margaret were all there.
“There was no sign of Prince Phillip, Princess Anne or Prince Andrew. There were lots of other young kids running about with them. I don’t know who they were but they were obviously aristocracy.
“When I returned with my mum they had set up goal posts and everything. We were brought into the fold, I think they enjoyed our company.
Royal sisters wore head scarfs and wellies
“The Queen sat on the rocks with my mum and Princess Margaret. The royal sisters were wearing head scarfs, raincoats and welly boots.
“They looked just like locals.
“We played football on the beach. They brought lunch and my mum brought jam sandwiches. The Queen had one of my mum’s jam sandwiches, I think she enjoyed it more than the salmon and cucumber ones they had with them.”
Alex continued: “My mum loved and respected the Queen.
“She promised her not to share the family photographs, and stuck to that promise. But after all these years I think it is a nice story to tell.
“My mum used to say the Queen never put a foot wrong. And she was spot on.”
‘Id like to challenge him to a re-match’
He couldn’t remember exactly how the football teams were organised, but Alex said that Charles was in goals.
“I took a penalty and he saved it. I’d like to challenge him to a re-match, I’d like to take that penalty shot again,” he joked.
As the royals headed out to sea on the tenders which would take them back to the Royal Yacht Britannia, young Alex noticed Charles had left his binoculars on the rocks.
“I shouted him back, gave him his binoculars and he said something like, ‘I would lose my head if it wasn’t screwed on’.”
The Royal Yacht Britannia was out in the bay. Alex said: “They used to berth it tucked away out of sight at Sandray, an island off Vatersay. They would find a cove in there.”
Memories of the special day came flooding back as Alex followed the coverage of the Queen’s funeral recently.
“I was watching the Queen’s funeral and I thought, ‘I’ve met her’. Not many people have had an experience like that.
‘There is nothing worse than losing your mother, whether she is the Queen or not’
“When I met the Queen I didn’t know what to do, whether to curtsey or bow, so I did both. I was only a young fool. She said, ‘that’s OK son, it doesn’t really matter. She was a very nice person.
“I actually think that Charles III is going to be the best king this country has ever seen. I’m sorry for his loss of his mother. There is nothing worse than losing your mother, whether she is the Queen or not.
“They were just people. Normal people. And they involved us. It was an honour.”
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