A little girl returning from a family trip to the UK got a lot more than she bargained for after leaving her stuffed monkey at Buckingham Palace.
Adelaide kindergartener Savannah Hart, 5, was visiting the Queen’s home with her sister and parents while holidaying in London when she left behind her class toy monkey named Harriet.
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In an incredible gesture, staff at Buckingham Palace went above and beyond to help reunite the schoolgirl with her beloved toy.
Savannah’s mum Katie tells New Idea she called royal staff after realising the next day that Harriet the monkey had gone missing.
“We still had three more days after that in London. So the next morning we were on a tour on a double-decker bus and we’d only been on it for about 10 minutes and I thought, ‘Where’s Harriet?’” Katie explains.
“We checked all of our bags and I checked my phone for the last photo we had of her, which was the one in Buckingham Palace. I was pretty certain that’s where she was.
“I called a few numbers to get through to them, but I ended up speaking to visitor services at Buckingham Palace and they took my details and said ‘OK, we’ll have a look out for her.’ But we didn’t have high hopes.”
The Harts had to return to their home in Woodside, South Australia, before Harriet could be located, and little Savannah was devastated.
During her first day back at school, Savannah and her classmates penned a letter to the Queen in the hopes they could track down the missing monkey.
“One of our monkeys, Harriet, recently visited Buckingham Palace with one of our little girls, Savannah. Unfortunately, Harriet was left behind in the activity room on August 13, 2019. Savannah’s mother did contact palace staff and leave her name and email address in case she was found, but to date we have not heard from Harriet!” the letter read.
“Our children would dearly like her to return to Woodside to share her adventures. Could you please look in the activity room to see if she is still there? She was last seen near the dress-ups! We appreciate you taking the time to try and find our monkey. Yours Sincerely, The Children of Woodside Preschool.”
A week later, staff from visitor services at Buckingham Palace wrote back a hilariously sweet note, saying they had spotted Harriet eating scones in the garden shed.
Also inside the care package was Harriet herself, a toy corgi named Rex and a number of photographs showing her adventures around the royal palace. The pictures showed the monkey with a plate of scones and strawberries, next to Rex and hanging out with staff at the visitor centre.
“Just seeing those photos, I was blown away by the effort they put in. It was just amazing,” Katie gushes.
“I don’t know if the Queen had a lot to do with it,” she adds with a laugh. “The kids don’t need to know that though! They think the Queen had a bit to do with it.”
“My daughters know who Meghan and Kate are and we talk about George and Charlotte all the time. So they were very excited by it all.”
Now safely back home, Harriet has retired from her jet-setting ways.
Palace staff confirmed Harriet’s adventure in a statement.
“We aim to give every visitor to Buckingham Palace a memorable experience and after we had found Harriet the monkey near the Family Pavilion, she spent some time helping out the Visitor Services team before heading home,” a Royal Collection Trust spokesperson explained.
“We hope Harriet enjoyed telling Rex the corgi about her adventures on the journey back to Australia.”
Read more in this week’s issue of New Idea!