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Almost 53 years ago a quick dash from Lyttelton to Millbrook with Queen Elizabeth II’s private secretary in tow earned the late Robert Flower a special plaque gifted by the Queen.
At the time, her majesty walked down the gang plank of the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1970 to present the Queen’s Coat of Arms, one of only three presented in New Zealand, to Flower.
But then in 1985 Flower died, aged 56, and over the years his daughter Carol Brickle, of Timaru, has lost touch with family members and the plaque’s whereabouts has become a mystery to her.
When the Queen died in September last year she was again reminded of the plaque and is desperate to find it.
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“I’m trying to find the plaque given to my late father by the Queen in 1970,’’ she said.
“My father remarried a Noelene Tilden and on the day it was a double wedding with her daughter.’’
JOHN BISSET/Stuff
Timaru woman Carol Brickle with family items received by the Queen and a photo of her father’s second marriage to Noelene Tilden in 1980. She’s hoping to be reunited with a plaque given to her father by the Queen.
Brickle has been researching in a bid to find the plaque, but said she had come to dead-end with her research.
She said her research showed Noelene had four daughters, but she has lost touch with them.
“Hopefully one of the family members have got the plaque.
“It’s very significant, and we’d like it back.’’
While she did not have a photo of the plaque, she said it had a “beautiful blue background’’ with the Queen’s crest on it.
While the plaque was sentimental to the family, Brickle, who grew up in Christchurch, said it also had special meaning to her as she had met the Queen.
Supplied
A makeup compact and necklaces given to the Flower family from the Queen in the 1970s.
“When I met her I was wearing some of the gifts she had given my father including necklaces.’’
Brickle said her father had been a chauffeur in the 1970s, and in 1972 he drove the then-Prime Minister Norman Kirk and other New Zealand dignitaries.
“He recalls driving to Waimate all the time to pick Norman Kirk up in the Ford LTD, which were the ministerial cars of the time.’’
In the 1970 visit by the Queen and Duke, Brickle’s father had to drive the Queen’s private secretary Lieutenant Colonel Sir Michael Adeane, later Lord Adeane, to Millbrook as he was left behind when the royals were travelling south.
Supplied
Brickle met the Queen in Christchurch in 1977 where they spoke about Brickle’s necklace.
“They closed roads so that my father could travel at speed to get him down there in time.
“For this he received the Queen’s Coat of Arms.’’
Brickle said her father also drove dignitaries during the Christchurch Commonwealth Games in February 1974.
“I remember getting a phone call from the bridge of the Britannia telling me there were gifts to be picked up.’’
Those gifts were necklaces, a broach, and cuff links.
In March 1977, Brickle met the Queen during her 25th Jubilee visit to New Zealand.
JOHN BISSET/Stuff
Brickle says the plaque has sentimental value to her.
“I was in Christchurch wearing one of the necklaces that she had given us.
“I was holding it out, and she came over to me and asked ‘what do you have here?’
“I said ‘it was a gift from you to my father’.’’
The Queen asked Brickle what he had done, and she replied that he was a chauffeur and had driven her private secretary.
“She asked if he was driving this tour and I said ‘yes’.’’
A photo of Brickle talking to the Queen appeared in The Press.
When her father died in 1985, the family was driven to his funeral in a ministerial car, Brickle said.
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