Queen left heartbroken following death of close friend

The Queen has been left devastated following the loss of a close childhood friend, who helped her through the death of her late husband Prince Philip.

Lady Myra Butter, who was one of Philip's cousins and a childhood friend of the Queen, died aged 97 in her London home last Friday, according to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

The death notice read: “Myra Alice, Lady (CVO) died peacefully on Friday 29th July 2022 in London aged 97. Beloved wife of the late Major Sir David Butter. Adored mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Private family funeral in Scotland”.

Lady Butter was descended from Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, as well as acclaimed Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

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She was awarded a Pushkin medal on the personal decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the work she did to bring Scottish and Russian school children together. However, she gave it back after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Lady Butter had previously spoken with The Telegraph in 2021 about how she first got to know the Queen when they were children and shared a story of their time in the 1st Buckingham Palace Company of Girl Guides, which launched in 1937.

“(Buckingham Palace) got hold of some girls to be part of the thing to make it more fun,” she said.

“In the Guides and the Brownies it was a real mixture, which was really nice, some friends, friends of (the family), and all the people in the Royal mews, their children, they were Brownies and Guides. Just a normal sort of pack really.”

Lady Butter has previously described the Queen as having a "very good sense of humour which has gone on for all her life".

Ingrid Seward, author of Prince Philip Revealed, spoke of Lady Butter's relationship with the Queen and Philip, telling Newsweek, "Lady Butter was wonderful. She is a daughter of the Wernher family and the Queen and Philip were very, very friendly with them and so was the Queen Mother."

It's believed that Lady Butter's death is a heartbreaking and devastating blow for the Queen, especially after the death of Philip last year.

Lady Butter has previously described the Queen's loss of Philip as "incalculable".

In an interview with ITV, she shared how much Philip meant to Her Majesty, saying, "There's nobody, in my mind, who could have done that job. Nobody. Dedicated to it, and very intelligent and youthful."

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