Sandringham WI members will miss their Royal friend the Queen this month

One organisation which goes into 2023 feeling the loss of The Queen especially deeply is Sandringham Women's Institute.

It is particularly poignant because this would have been her 80th year as a member of the West Norfolk branch.

And in the past this would have been the month that the members would have been planning and waiting excitedly for their Royal president to join them at their monthly meeting at West Newton Village Hall.

January's visit to the WI had become a must on the Queen's winter calendar when she was at Sandringham.

She would join in the formalities of the annual meeting, pour tea for some of the fellow members and sit back to listen to a celebrity speaker.

Her last visit was in 2019 when the guest speaker was TV presenter Alexander Armstrong, of Pointless fame, and the Queen joined in a live version of the quiz.

The following year she missed the meeting because she was suffering from a cold. That year the speaker was newsreader Huw Edwards and it was the last meeting before lockdown.

The monarch's death last year means that instead of a fun afternoon in her company, members will be reflecting on the special times they enjoyed.

Chairman, Yvonne Browne, said at the time the news broke last year: “For those two hours we all spent together she was just one of us.”

“It will never be the same,” she added.

The Sandringham branch was set up by Queen Mary and it was in 1943 that the then Princess Elizabeth joined. She carried on the tradition, attending meetings with her mother and often with her sister Princess Margaret.

It was in 2003 that she became branch president, following in the footsteps of the Queen Mother and forging friendships with members over the decades.

There was never a shortage of celebrity guests eager to talk to the members and their president. Dame Penelope Keith, TV presenter Julia Bradbury, Norfolk's Carol Bundock, poet Pam Ayres and presenter Clare Balding were just a few of the big names.

“This is the first January we have known without the Queen as president so it is sad,” said Mrs Browne. “But we continue as a branch of the Women's Institute.”

She said that are no moves on the cards for a new president at this stage and added: “However, we have a lot of exciting things to look forward to including the coronation of King Charles and also Sandringham Flower Show later in the summer.”