Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Wave Gets a Helping Hand

Queen Elizabeth II has been given a helping hand to ensure her iconic wave continues during royal engagements.

The Queen was gifted a waving machine, which was given to her as a joke by a group of Australian students a few years ago.

The stuffed glove, placed on a wooden lever, means that she can carry on waving at royal engagements even if her arm starts to get tired.

Although the waving machine was given in jest and she has never used it in public, Queen Elizabeth II was so thrilled by the false hand that she took it back to the UK.

Alison recalls the moment the young Oshies presented her with the contraption in a book about the Queen.

Anne 68, said, “They gave her a stuffed glove on a wooden lever so you could tweak the end of the lever and this hand went to and fro.

I think they thought it was cheeky, but Her Majesty was thrilled.”

Author Robert Hartman, who talked to the Princess for his book Queen of the World, said, “The Queen was rather taken with it and I think it ended up a pal moral.

I don't think she ever used it in public, but I hear it became a much-loved family joke.”

The Queen, who is 92 years old, has perfected the art of her iconic wave with minimum effort and has spent much of her 66 years on the throne greeting crowds.

However, she is required to do it thousands of times, most often when faced with crowds of well-wishers on tour.

Her Royal Yacht Britannia even had a group of people who were hired specifically for that particular task from its deck.

This is because while the boat was sailing alone, crowds would appear on the banks and wave.

However, the crew were often too busy to respond, so decided that they required waving parties to do it instead.

Albert Dixie-Dean, one of the longest-serving yachtsmen on the Britannia, said, “It was exhausting to wave all the time, so we had a party whose job was just to wave.”

The revelation was revealed in the new biography Queen of the World, which has come out around the same time as a documentary of the same name being released.