Despite living in a literal palace, Queen Elizabeth was famously frugal. Former royal staff members have frequently commented on her humble tastes and dislike of anything that could be viewed as excess, especially when it came to wasting food. And although King Charles is known for being an environmentalist, the late Queen also had one eco-friendly pet peeve at Buckingham Palace.
In his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, Gyles Brandreth shared that Queen Elizabeth was very much a product of the World War II generation when it came to being thrifty. Decades after rationing and energy usage restrictions had ended, she still didn’t like to use the heat at Buckingham Palace.
“Elizabeth II could not abide empty rooms being heated unnecessarily and preferred her rooms heated with electric fires where she could turn on just one or two bars of the fire as required,” Brandreth wrote.
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Queen Elizabeth preferred to heat her rooms with a fireplace, the biographer said.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait
The late Queen thought that younger people who hadn’t been through the war “were very profligate with their use of fuel,” former Prime Minister Edward Heath told the author. That being said, Queen Elizabeth took matters into her own hands when her family didn’t cooperate.
During a conversation with Brandreth in the ‘80s, the late Queen told him that she spent “an awful lot of time going from room to room turning off the lights” when her children Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward were young.
“It really annoys me when people leave the lights on,” she told Brandreth. “It’s just so wasteful.”
Queen Elizabeth is pictured at Buckingham Palace in 2010.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
It seems her habits trickled down to King Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. In the BBC documentary Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70, Harry and William admitted that they take after their father when it comes to turning off the lights.
“He’s a stickler for turning lights off and that’s now something that I’m obsessed with,” Prince Harry said, with Prince William chiming in, “I know, I’ve got serious OCD with light switches now, which is terrible.” The Duke of Sussex said that his wife, Meghan Markle, was puzzled by his lights obsession, with Harry stating she’d say, “Well, why turn the lights off? You know, it’s dark.”
It seems she has Queen Elizabeth to thank.
