At a reception for Sir Robert Mayer on his 100th birthday, Lady Diana Cooper, who suffers from failing eyesight, chatted to a friendly woman who seemed to know her well. It wasn’t until she peered more closely at the magnificent diamonds that she realized she was talking to the Queen! Overcome with embarrassment, she curtsied and stammered, ‘Oh ma’am, I’m so sorry. I didn’t recognize you without your crown!’ ‘Oh don’t worry about that,’ said the Queen. ‘This is Sir Robert’s evening so I decided to leave it behind.’
William Temple, one time Archbishop of Canterbury, would have loved that. It was he who said; ‘Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of others… It means freedom from thinking about your own self importance at all.’