How Queen Elizabeth Reacted When Her Guard Gave Her Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation

Queen Elizabeth once shared a hilarious story about her being given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by one of her guards. How the Queen reacted to the situation proves she is not always as formal as she seems.

People know Queen Elizabeth for acting regal and formal whenever she is out in public. Her formality during royal events is legendary and her faithfulness to the British tradition of keeping a stiff upper lip is notable. But while most people see her as a ceremonial and untouchable being, Queen Elizabeth is fun-loving and jokey behind closed doors.

Previously, a royal biographer shared how hilarious Queen Elizabeth actually is as a person. According to her, the Queen’s sense of humor is one of the reasons Her Majesty has been able to survive 60 years of grueling public life.

Royal biographer Karen Dolby revealed, in her 2015 book “The Wicked Wit of Queen Elizabeth II,” what Queen Elizabeth is actually like behind the scenes. Dolby shared that, during a sitting for a painting in 2001, Queen Elizabeth casually told artist Lucian Freud about a funny experience she had under the protection of a personal security officer.

According to the Queen, she and the officer were talking about racing horses while she was picking up guns when the officer suddenly gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, thinking she had been shot. “I was picking up after the guns as I always do, when a wounded cock pheasant scratched me and drew blood,” Queen Elizabeth was quoted as saying.

Queen Elizabeth said the officer immediately threw himself on top of her after assuming she had been shot, giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. “I consider we got to know each other rather well,” she said in jest. Instead of chastising the officer, Queen Elizabeth reportedly laughed off the officer’s thoughtful gesture.

Queen Elizabeth’s sense of humor is what has, reportedly, kept her relationship with Prince Philip strong over the years. Back in 2010, Canadian politician Michael Ignatieff also revealed how shocked he was by Queen Elizabeth’s sense of humor. He noted how struck she was to discover Queen Elizabeth’s “sense of humor, sense of the absurd, and sense of comedy of life,” saying it must have been the reason she has been able to endure her life as a monarch.