A British man held hostage in Lebanon for nearly five years told Monday, September 12, 2022, how Queen Elizabeth invited him to stay with his family in her castle after his release, in a dramatic change from being chained. Stay in Balmoral, Scotland. to the wall to dine with the royal family.
Terry Waite was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s envoy to Beirut in January 1987 during the Lebanese civil war. He was personally taken hostage while trying to negotiate the release of British hostages held by Islamic Jihad.
For most of his captivity, which ended in November 1991, Witt was held in cramped solitary confinement in extremely harsh conditions.
Waite, now 83, recounts that after being repatriated to Britain, he received an unexpected invitation from the Queen to stay away from the intense media attention with his wife and four children at her Scottish castle of Balmoral.
In an interview about the Queen’s death on September 8, Waite told Radio Times that the family were also taken to an RAF base in Scotland before being transferred to a helicopter that landed on a meadow in front of Balmoral Castle.
“You can imagine going from five years of sleeping on the floor or chained to a wall, and suddenly you’re at Balmoral!” he says.
While the family stayed in a cottage in the castle grounds for two weeks, Princess Diana used it when she was the wife of the Queen’s eldest son, Prince Charles.
While Witt said the fridge inside the cottage was stocked with food and a Land Rover was made available to family members to use during their stay.
At the weekend, they were invited to dinner at the castle with the Queen, her husband Prince Philip and other members of the royal family.
“William and Harry were boys and they were there,” he added, referring to Charles and Diana’s sons.
He continued: “Diana was there. I actually chatted a lot with Prince Philip.”
Witt also said it took about a year to feel back to normal, but staying at Balmoral made a big difference.
“I was very grateful for the Queen’s care and kindness,” he said.
He added: “She is looked upon as a queen when she plays official roles, but somehow she managed to combine her role with a degree of deep understanding and concern for people. She had a lot of knowledge of different situations. “You can talk to him. About any situation, and you’ll find that he makes him say what you know.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
