It’s been revealed by Royal biographer Robert Hardman
Queen Elizabeth’s final diary entry before she died has been revealed.
Just two days before she passed on September 8, 2022 at the age of 96, Queen Elizabeth II penned her final diary entry.
She wrote just five words which had remained a secret until now.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman brought the contents of the diary to life while updating his book Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story.
The diary itself serves as a rare glimpse inside the thoughts of a monarch who had served for over 70 years and yet still maintained an air of mystery about her.
However, Hardman describes the final entry as ‘factual and practical’ and in fact reveals very little, simply stating: “Edward came to see me.”
The Edward in question is actually Sir Edward Young, Elizabeth’s private secretary.
He likely met with her that day to discuss the swearing-in of council members for the newly elected prime minister, Liz Truss.
The final entry holds a similar tone to the rest of her journal entries which she used to document her daily activities to jog her memory and to serve as a historical record of her reign.
Hardman says: “It transpires that she was still writing at Balmoral two days before her death.
“It could have been describing another normal working day starting in the usual way – ‘Edward came to see me’ – as she noted the arrangements which her private secretary, Sir Edward Young, had made for the swearing-in of the new ministers of the Truss Administration.”
On that same day, she met with Liz Truss who recalled the meeting after the Queen’s death.
She said: “She was very, very keen to reassure me that we’d be meeting again soon. … It was very important to her.
“She was absolutely on top of what was happening. Although she was physically quite frail, she was absolutely mentally alert.”
A virtual privy council meeting the following day was postponed on the advice of her doctors before she passed away the following day.
The late Queen was not the only monarch to keep a diary, Queen Victoria completed 141 volumes of diaries over the course of her 63-year reign.
King Charles also keeps a diary though Hardman notes it is ‘not quite as self-analytical, humorous and readable as the journal he kept as a prince’.
