Yahoo Finance The cheeky reason the Queen turned down this award
Being the nation's longest-reigning British monarch (having been on the throne for almost 70 years), it makes sense that the Queen would be nominated for an award that celebrates all her hard workout across the decades. It may come as a surprise then, that when offered the award for Oldie of the Year, Her Majesty (who is 95-years-old) declined the offer.
In the November issue of The Oldie magazine, author, broadcaster and chairman of the Oldie of the Year awards, Gyles Brandreth, explained how he'd written to the Queen's private secretary to ask if she would accept the accolade.
In the article, Brandreth shared the "polite but firm" response he got back from Balmoral Castle, which read: "Her Majesty believes you are as old as you feel, as such The Queen does not believe she meets the relevant criteria to be able to accept, and hopes you will find a more worthy recipient."
Luckily, Brandreth and the rest of The Oldie team didn't take too much offence to being turned down by the Monarch. "Those warmest best wishes are of course heartily reciprocated by all of us at Oldie Towers and, I am sure, by all our readers," he said, "Long live The Queen! Perhaps in the future we will sound out Her Majesty once more."
But the Queen isn't the only Royal to be offered an Oldie award. Back in 2011, her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh accepted his own Oldie of the Year accolade to mark his 90th birthday.
In a letter of appreciation for the award, Prince Philip said: "There is nothing like it for morale to be reminded that the years are passing – ever more quickly – and that bits are beginning to drop off the ancient frame."
"But it is nice to be remembered at all," he added. The Duke of Edinburgh sadly passed away earlier this year in April, just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday.
The Queen's daughter-in-law, The Duchess of Cornwall, also joined in on the Oldie's fun as she attended this year's awards ceremony at The Savoy Hotel in London.
Speaking about Camilla's presence at the event, Brandreth said, "We were honoured by the presence of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, who, too young to be eligible for an award herself, presented them to this year’s galaxy of worthy award-winners. We are grateful to her, to our award-winners and to this year’s team of judges."
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