Before she and Prince Philip were married, the late Queen Elizabeth used to enjoy tootling around town in a Daimler limousine with the number plate HRH 1.
The registration was given to her as a present to celebrate her engagement in 1947.
However, I hear that HRH 1 has been confirmed lost by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. ‘The vehicle registration number HRH 1 is neither assigned to a vehicle, nor held on retention,’ a DVLA spokesman confirms.
Now, the nearest existing number plate to this, 1 HRH, has been put on the market for a staggering £2.65million. Ideal for a Royal Family member keen to advertise the fact.
It’s being sold by Richard Conway, of The Number Plate Company Group. He bought it for his Bentley in 2021 but won’t reveal how much he paid. It had previously been sold for nearly £114,000 at a DVLA auction in Northamptonshire in 2009.
Conway says that HRH 1, if ever found, ‘could be worth many millions’.
He tells me: ‘Even without the specific royal connection, it could be worth between £2.5million and £3.5million, but the fact it was owned and used by Queen Elizabeth II could double that.’
The last known whereabouts of the Daimler was in the possession of a Kent car collector, Tom Lambkin, with number plate HRH 1 still attached. He died in 2022 aged 88. The registration was initially given to a Yorkshire motorist, George Thompson, by Hull City Council in 1946.
Before she and Prince Philip were married, the late Queen Elizabeth used to enjoy tootling around town in a Daimler limousine with the number plate HRH 1 (pictured)
The registration (pictured) was given to her as a present to celebrate her engagement in 1947
But Thompson, a faithful monarchist, would later surrender the plate in favour of Princess Elizabeth.
Perhaps the number plate would appeal to King Charles? When he visited the Aardman Animations studio in Bristol in 2001, he was presented with a model of Wallace and Gromit in their motorbike and sidecar with the registration HRH 1.
HRH 1 is also to be found on the back of Prince George’s Aston Villa replica shirt, which the Birmingham football club gave to the future king as a present.
Stewart clan gains another member
Sir Rod Stewart has made no secret of how much he enjoys being a grandfather, calling it an ‘indescribable joy’.
So the singer, 80, will no doubt be delighted that he is due to gain a fifth grandchild, as his daughter Kimberly Stewart is pregnant with her second child.
The singer, 80, will no doubt be delighted that he is due to gain a fifth grandchild, as his daughter Kimberly Stewart is pregnant with her second child (pictured)
The model, 45, whose mother is Rod’s first wife, Alana, is expecting a boy with her boyfriend, Jesse Shapira, a film producer.
‘Baby Boy coming soon,’ says Kimberly, who shared this photograph online.
She has a 13-year-old daughter, Delilah, with Hollywood star Benicio del Toro, 58.
We’re dad-dancing on sunshine, woah!
Voted the happiest song of all time in an opinion poll published last week, Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves has one drawback. Singer Katrina Leskanich says it’s ‘completely impossible to dance to’.
She explains: ‘I’ve seen the ugliest dad-dancing you’ve ever seen. It usually starts as a pogo.
Singer Katrina Leskanich (pictured) says it’s ‘completely impossible to dance to’
‘And now, people of a certain age who knew and loved the song think they can pogo for three-and-a-half minutes, and it’s not happening. They end up bent over, panting for oxygen.’
She adds: ‘What I do now is cut the beat in half and move on every other beat so I can look cool and actually make it through to the end of the song without having a heart attack.’
Sophie’s back on track
BBC star Sophie Raworth painfully pulled out of last year’s London Marathon six miles from the finish line due to a stress fracture in her ankle.
Now the newsreader, 56, has an inspiring bulletin about herself to report. She completed the Centurion Running 2025 Hundred Hills 50km at Stonor Park in Oxfordshire at the weekend, finishing third in her age group.
BBC star Sophie Raworth completed the Centurion Running 2025 Hundred Hills 50km at Stonor Park in Oxfordshire at the weekend, finishing third in her age group (pictured)
Raworth had ‘tears at the end’ after completing the 31-mile course, which included a 4,500ft climb. ‘I had spent a lot of the past year thinking I’d never run like that again,’ she says.
Can Dynamo learn the magic of growing old?
As Dynamo, he wowed millions with his magic tricks, walking on water over the Thames, and levitating in front of Christ the Redeemer and above the Shard skyscraper.
Now celebrated magician Steven Frayne, 42, wonders whether he’s losing his spell over audiences.
As Dynamo, he wowed millions with his magic tricks. Now celebrated magician Steven Frayne (pictured), 42, wonders whether he’s losing his spell over audiences
‘There are limitations which come with old age,’ he admits. ‘I’m getting on a bit now.
‘I have imposter syndrome. I’m performing again, but I’m thinking, “Am I as good as I was? Are people going to like what I’m gonna do?”‘
Optimistically, he adds: ‘I’m enjoying creating magic.’
No peerage for Harry and Andrew
Even the hereditary peerage seems to have given up on Princes Harry and Andrew. In a House of Lords debate the question was raised of members of the Royal Family being allowed to sit in the Upper House. Hereditary peer Lord Northbrook, 71, scion of the Baring family (motto: By uprightness and toil), said: ‘I might draw the line at the Duke of York or the Duke of Sussex, but I could tolerate some others.’
Even the hereditary peerage seems to have given up on Princes Harry and Andrew
In a House of Lords debate the question was raised of members of the Royal Family being allowed to sit in the Upper House. Pictured: Prince Andrew at King Charles’s coronation in 2023
Hereditary peer Lord Northbrook (pictured, with charity founder Renu Mehta), 71, scion of the Baring family (motto: By uprightness and toil), said: ‘I might draw the line at the Duke of York or the Duke of Sussex, but I could tolerate some others.’
Harry’s old haunt gets Miami makeover
Prince Harry used to enjoy raucous nights at Mexican-themed club Tonteria before he met Meghan. The haunt in Sloane Square, west London, reopened last night as The Knox, inspired by 1980s Miami. ‘We want to bring back the fun in clubbing,’ says Jo Mulvihill, designer of the opulent interiors, which include trains delivering shots and lounge booths with red phones, so customers can flirt on the blower.
The haunt in Sloane Square, west London, reopened last night as The Knox (pictured), inspired by 1980s Miami
Samantha Barks: ‘Not many prostitutes I haven’t played’
Samantha Barks, who has just hung up her blue cape after a three-year stint as Princess Elsa in the West End musical Frozen, claims she’s best known as a lady of the night. ‘I’ve played prostitutes a few times on stage – I’ve made a career out of it,’ she says at the Phoenix Arts Club in London. ‘There’s not many prostitutes I haven’t played, honestly.’ The most prominent such role for Barks, 34, was in Pretty Woman on Broadway in 2019.
