From teenage waiter to Lord Mayor – Leeds man’s two very different meetings with Queen Elizabeth II

Brian North, 83, first met Her Majesty when he was a fresh-faced 17-year-old waiter.

Forty five years later, the two would meet again – but this time with Brian as the Lord Mayor of Leeds.

After getting onto a catering course, Brian travelled up to RAF Leuchars near Dundee to help wait the Queen’s table, during a Royal visit in 1957.

"I made sure I saved the menu card from that day,” he said. “I took it back to my mother.”

"I wasn’t that nervous waiting the Queen’s table, as I have always been reasonably confident.

“But to get an opportunity like that at 17 was a great thing for me.”

Following this meeting, nearly half a century would pass before the two would meet again – by which time Brian had become Lord Mayor of Leeds.

He said: “When the Queen came to Leeds in 2002, me and my late wife went to greet her at the Civic Hall.

"I was walking down the corridor with the Queen, and I told her it was the second time we had met.

"When she asked when this was, I told her I still had the menu card from when I served her at RAF Leuchars in 1957.

"She smiled and said ‘I remember the occasion’.

"We then joked for a bit – she was able to put you at such ease.”

When they made it out to the Civic Hall steps, the Queen beckoned Brian to her car.

"At first, I looked round to see who she was beckoning!” he said.

"When I went to her, she said ‘we will continue this conversation at Harewood’ – this was where we were going for lunch.

"When we were later sat at the table, she wanted to see the menu from 1957, so I showed it to her.

"She was so wonderful, and was very sociable.”

Like many others across the UK and beyond, Brian was devastated when he heard the news of Her Majesty’s death this week.

"My thoughts were with her family,” he said. “It’s a sad time for the country – she has been with us for such a long time.

"When you start looking back at the things that occurred in history and how the world has changed, she was the ultimate professional.”

The UK has now entered a period of national mourning, with details of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral yet to be confirmed.

Speaking this week, the new King, Charles III, said: “We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example".

"To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you.

"Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'."