One of the four pageboys tasked to carry the queen’s train into Parliament so that she could deliver her annual State Opening speech interrupted proceedings a bit when — with a reportedly loud thump — he fell to the floor in an apparent faint.
BuzzFeed reported the details, as relayed by Twitter users: “One of the page boys has fainted — has just had to be carried out #QueenSpeech,” Kate Devlin tweeted.
A minute later, another Twitter user wrote: “One of her maj’s page boys keeled over there at end of speech, I think. He’s been carried away.”
And a couple minutes after that, Tony Grew posted: “Queen such a pro. Didn’t miss a beat when page boy fainted #QueensSpeech.”
A parliament spokesman ultimately confirmed the incident, as one Twitter user noted: “House of Lords spokesman: ’We can confirm one of the page boys did faint slightly but he is now fine.’ Slightly? #QueensSpeech.”
It’s not clear which of the four pages named in the BuzzFeed article — Hugo Bertie, The Hon. Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Aithrie or Arthur Chatto — was the fainting victim.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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