A team of assistants who were close to the late Queen Elizabeth II have been assigned to sort her private diaries and letters, according to The Independent.
The team entrusted with the sensitive task of sorting through the late Queen’s private diaries and letters includes former footman Paul Whybrew, nicknamed “Tall Paul” within the royal household for his 6ft 4in stature.
Whybrew has been trusted by the King to carry out the job, The Mail reported, with the newspaper dubbing him the “keeper of the Queen’s secrets”.
It is understood to be too early to decide which documents might eventually be publicly released in the years to come from the Royal Archives.
The Queen kept a handwritten diary, which could offer an unprecedented look at the late monarch’s thoughts and views on political and family life during her long reign.
Her ancestor Queen Victoria charted her thoughts every day in her journals, and the 141 volumes of private diaries have been digitized and released online.
Whybrew, who worked for the Queen for many years, was reported to be so close to the monarch that he would sometimes sit with her watching television.
He featured in the spoof James Bond sequence shown at the London 2012 Olympics, greeting 007-star Daniel Craig at Buckingham Palace and introducing him to the Queen, before accompanying them along a corridor.
In 1982, he apprehended the intruder Michael Fagan who had broken into the Queen’s bedroom at the Palace, with the footman congenially distracting him by offering him a drink and serving him a whisky.
Whybrew is working two days a week on the project, using gloves to protect the papers from the Queen’s desk as he sifts through letters and correspondence.
