GULLANE resident Pat Morris has shared the following personal treasured memory of the Queen from the time she spent two hours' in her company:

'My treasured memory of my time with the Queen is from September 2002.

I spent over two hours with the Queen at Balmoral. I had offered to take photos of the dogs (my hobby), not knowing she had 12 at the time, as a gift... and "Yes please", she replied.

I was met by Lady Mary in the office at Balmoral – she was the Queen's friend and Lady in Waiting.

I asked if we could have a footman or someone to help to control all the dogs, who came running out of the big door en masse – 10 corgis and 2 dorgis – as I hadn’t expected so many and I like to take single portraits or twos or threes. "No," said Lady Mary "but it will be all right; the owner is coming."

"Oh, right," I said... and then realised who the owner was!

Just on 9am, out she came – headsquare on, sunglasses, no gloves, body warmer, tartan skirt and flat shoes, and a huge smile.

She shook hands warmly (I hadn’t practised curtseying as I had never expected to meet her) and she was delightfully friendly and pleasant.

I had two hours and a bit with her and I quickly forgot who I was talking to and we just talked dogs and her beloved horses and the countryside – she was a real countrywoman at heart. She told me how much she loved Balmoral and could relax there.

I took the photos, lots of them, and she held the ‘treats tub’ and doled them out when the dog posed nicely. She had inherited two of the corgis from her mother, who had died earlier.

She suggested we move to the rose garden for more photos and some steps too, so I got lots of varied photos. She was especially proud of her tricolour corgi she had bred herself.

After 11am, someone called her back into the castle and she apologised and said she had to go – but would I pop over and take some photos of the gun dogs in their kennels (another 12 dogs).

The head keeper took me all round and we took an elderly Labrador to the edge of the River Dee and sat her under a lovely willow tree and I got a superb photo of her. I wasn’t told until much later that this was the Duke’s favourite dog.

The photos were all taken on the condition I never shared them with the press and never have done – and will not do so. All those dogs are gone now but I made two leather albums and mounted all the photos and got a wonderful thank you letter.

It was an absolutely lovely sunny morning and I completely forgot who I was talking to, so we just talked mostly animals and the countryside. She was friendly, kind, amusing and very natural, and I was so glad I had got such good photos for her – a wonderful memory for me, a lifelong royalist, to treasure.

As I left, a battered old Land Rover drove past and the driver waved merrily to me, so I waved back – it was of course Prince Philip!'

Have you got a special personal memory of the Queen? Please email editorial@eastlothiancourier.com if you'd like to share it with us.