William Tallon

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William John Stephenson Tallon RVM (12 November 1935 – 23 November 2007), also known as Backstairs Billy, was a steward and member of the Queen Mother's staff at Clarence House.

Early life[]

Tallon grew up in Norman Place Road, Coundon, Coventry and attended Barkers Butts Secondary Modern School.^[3]

Work with the Royal Family[]

Tallon's first job in the Royal Household was as a junior assistant, at Easter Court at Windsor in 1951, at age 15. He had been writing letters asking for work with the Household for the previous five years. He was later employed at Buckingham Palace. He was set to join Queen Elizabeth II on her Commonwealth tour in 1953-1954 but was kept back and did his National Service with the RAF. Subsequently, he asked Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother if he could join the staff at her home, Clarence House. She agreed, and he remained with her until her death in 2002.^[1]

After the death in 2000 of his partner, Reg Wilcock,^[4] the House Deputy Steward and the Queen Mother's Page of the Presence, Tallon reportedly suffered from depression. When the Queen Mother died he was heart broken.^[1] When she died in 2002, at age 101, Tallon left Clarence House. He settled in a ground-floor flat with a garden in Kennington, where he was found dead on 23 November 2007, at age 72.^[2]

In 2014 Buckingham Palace reacted angrily to suggestions made in The Royal Life of William Tallon, a biography of Tallon written by Tom Quinn, that the Queen Mother "was frequently drunk and "dotty" for the final 20 years of her life." The Queen Mother's niece and former lady-in-waiting, Margaret Rhodes, denied that the Queen Mother drank gin and tonic, claiming that she favoured a "gin martini mix which she usually made herself".^[5]

Media[]

• A Channel 4 documentary, Backstairs Billy: The Queen Mum's Butler, was broadcast in 2009.

Awards[]

He was one of the few holders of the Royal Victorian Medal in Gold, the highest award in the lowest grade of the Royal Victorian Order,^[1] He was awarded the medal in June 2001, having received his 50-year Service Clasp earlier that year.^[6]

Ribbon	Description	Notes
	Royal Victorian Medal (RVM) Gold	2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
	Royal Victorian Medal (RVM) Silver	With 1 Clasp "1995"
	Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal	1953
	Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal	1977 UK Version of this Medal
	Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal	2002 UK Version of this Medal

• He also received the Queen Elizabeth II Version of the Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal with 30, 40 and 50 year bars.

^{[7] [8]}

References[]

External links[]

• William Tallon at Find a Grave
• Tallon obituary, The Times Online
• "Last Word". Last Word. 30 November 2007. BBC. BBC Radio 4.