Setting fire to Buckingham Palace
By Rüdiger von Pachelbel
Assistant Press Attaché 1958-1963
During the State Visit of President Theodor Heuss, who was staying at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's Press Secretary phoned me with still noticeable agitation in his voice. He told me that Heuss had used the short afternoon break in his programme for a brief rest and lie-down in his bedroom. He had put out his cigar apparently carefully in what he may have assumed to be an ashtray on his bedside table, but had also ignited an embroidered German lace-mat, very old, precious and brittle, probably originating from Prince Albert's time.
One of the royal footmen outside noticed the smell of burning from the Presidential suite and traced it to the smouldering lace near the sleeping President. "Can you imagine", the Queen's Press Secretary said to me, "what the headlines would have been in tomorrow's Daily Express if a German President had succeeded in burning down Buckingham Palace - something that you people did not manage to do during the War!"
