The piper provided some valuable insights into the life of the Queen (Picture: Jim Bennett/Getty)
A former piper to Queen Elizabeth II has revealed how she used to joke around about his height and how she once saw him ‘briefly exposed’.
The monarch has always had a piper since 1843 because Queen Victoria used to like the sound of them when she was on holiday in the Scottish Highlands.
The late Queen had 17 of them during her reign.
Scott Methven, 48, served as the Queen’s piper from 2015 to 2019 and provided some valuable insights into their unique, close relationship.
On one occasion the Queen, who was just 5ft 3in tall, teased him about his height.
He revealed to the Daily Mail: ‘She once joked that I was the first piper to hold the post whom she didn’t have to look up to — a jibe at my 5ft 6in height.’
He previously told The Spectator how the wind had lifted his kilt in front of the Queen — revealing him as a ‘true Scotsman’.
He added: ‘Later, while I was escorting Her Majesty, she asked me if it had been a particularly cold morning.’ He also shared the fact that the Queen had given him an affectionate nickname.
The tradition of having a piper goes back years (Picture: ©Kelvin Bruce/Jim Bennett)
The Queen requested a different bagpipe song each morning so she wouldn’t get bored (Picture: Getty Images)
He once mistakenly addressed the Queen in the wrong way and she remarked: ‘Pipes, it has been 60 years since someone called me Your Royal Highness and I quite liked it.’
He also talked about her soft side, saying the late monarch had ‘pulled it out of the bag’ for him when his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2017.
She made sure her Piper’s two young children were cared for by royal nannies at Balmoral when their mum was in hospital.
The Queen had also arranged for a basket of strawberries and muffins to be sent to her nurses.
The tradition continues with King Charles (Picture: Getty Images)
‘Her Majesty supported me with everything that went on in my private life,’ he remembered fondly.
The piper also talked about how he would have a ‘right laugh’ with certain members of the Royal Family.
He said: ‘I remember one night, it was just the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and several other members of the family.
‘The invited guests hadn’t arrived, so I said I would mix it up and I did movies [theme tunes] on the bagpipes.
‘I would go around the tables and it would be Top Gun… and the Prince of Wales (now King Charles) asked if I could do AC/DC Thunderstruck.’
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The Queen certainly had a cheeky side to her.
