The Queen has spoken about how she became the first young person in the Commonwealth to earn the Royal Life Saving Society’s junior lifesaving award.

Credit: Kensington Palace & Buckingham Palace

This was during her first public appearance since her husband, Prince Philip, passed away.

She described receiving the Life Saving Award from the Royal Life Saving Society, the United Kingdom’s premier supplier of water safety and drowning prevention education, as a “great achievement” at such a young age in a video chat.

Princess Elizabeth obtained her junior respiration award as a 14-year-old in 1941 after finishing training at a London club where she and her sister Princess Margaret attended swimming classes.

The Queen said she “didn’t realize she was the first one” during a video conversation with the society’s lifeguards last Thursday.

“I just did it and had to work very hard for it. It was a great achievement and I was very proud to wear the badge on the front of my swimming suit.

“It was very grand, I thought.”

🏅🏊‍♀️The Queen, Patron, has shared memories of achieving her own @rlsscw Life Saving Award in 1941, during a call with the Royal Life Saving Society.

The @rlsscw works in 30 Commonwealth nations to combat preventable death by drowning, and deliver lifesaving education. pic.twitter.com/lzlikLJ6MB

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 10, 2021

She has been the patron of the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) since 1952.

The queen, 95, said, “It was all done in the bath club, in the swimming pool. I suppose, I didn’t actually realize what I was doing. I think I must’ve been 12 or something, 14. It’s a very long time along, I’m afraid.”

“I think it’s changed a lot,” she said with a grin. After one of the patrons pointed out that Elizabeth received her medal 80 years ago, she laughed and remarked, “It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

Princess Elizabeth became the first young person from the Commonwealth of Nations linked to the United Kingdom to receive the Society’s Junior Respiration Award, “providing an example to young people and helping to establish lifesaving and resuscitation qualifications across the network of nations,” according to a statement released by Buckingham Palace on Monday.

The Royal Life Saving Society was formed in London in 1891 in response to hundreds of avoidable drownings.

Her Majesty talked with Clive Holland, the RLSS’s Deputy President, and Dr. Stephen Beerman, the winner of the Society’s 2020 King Edward VII Cup, who has worked for the Royal Life Saving Societies of Canada and the Commonwealth about reducing drowning fatalities.

The cup is presently in the United Kingdom, and Queen Elizabeth joked that it was “a very large cup that you might see one day if you come to London.”

In the backdrop, footage of Elizabeth in the pool as a teen and subsequently wearing her medal played as Elizabeth happily reminisced her time preparing for the lifesaving badge.

The Queen has resumed work after the formal period of mourning ended on April 9 following the death of her adored 73-year-old husband, Prince Philip.

Sarah Downs, a 20-year-old student who saved the life of a little child while working as a lifeguard at an Exeter swimming pool in 2018, was asked about her memories of receiving her medal.

When asked about the Mayfair gentlemen’s club, the Queen answered, “Well, it’s a very long time ago.

Ms Downs was then asked about her own experiences as a lifeguard and how she came to earn the Russell Medal from the organization in 2018 for resuscitating the youngster.

Ms Downs stated that the youngster had a fit while obtaining some armbands under water.

“So when I came back to the shallow end, being notified of this child under the water and then getting him out of the pool, I completed CPR on him to resuscitate and bring him back around,” she explained.

“The problem of drowning is very much an international problem,” the Queen remarked after learning that 235,000 people die each year from drowning throughout the world.