Who was Lady Myra Butter? Queen Elizabeth mourns death of a close friend

British monarch Queen Elizabeth is mourning the loss of her dear childhood friend, Lady Myra Butter.

As per The Daily Telegraph, Lady Butter passed away "peacefully" in London on July 29 at the age of 97. She and Queen Elizabeth were childhood friends and shared a close bond with each other.

Queen Elizabeth (Image via Jonathan Brady/Getty)

Lady Myra Butter was among the several youngsters commissioned by Buckingham Palace to accompany the Queen in several fun activities like girl guiding to swimming,etc.

Moroever, the Queen and Princess Margaret were also spotted attending Lady Butter's wedding to Major David Butter in 1946.

---

All you need to know about Lady Myra Butter

Lady Myra Butter was born in 1925 in Edinburgh to Sir Harold Wernher and Lady Zia Wernher. Their family is the descendant of the Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia. As per Newsweek, she was the great-granddaughter of Russia's Tsar Nicholas I and was also related to Alexander Pushkin, the Russian poet.

In a 2021 interview with The Telegraph, Lady Butter recalled her childhood with the Queen as 11 and 12 years old when they used to go to swimming lessons together.

"[Buckingham Palace] They got hold of some girls to be part of the thing to make it more fun. In the Guides and the Brownies it was a real mixture, which was really nice, some friends, friends of [the family], and all the people in the royal mews, their children, they were Brownies and Guides. Just a normal sort of pack really."

Lady Myra Butter was also a cousin to Prince Philip and shared a close bond with him. While speaking to the Daily Mail in 2017, Lady Butter expressed her thoughts when Prince Philip got retired:

"He always used to say, quite openly, 'I'm past my sell-by date.' He was never going to do it before the Queen's 90th birthday last year – he was always going to be there for her for that. [But] we all felt that this was the moment."

When Prince Philip passed away in 2021, at the age of 99, Lady Myra Butter, while talking to ITV, praised the deceased soul for his dedication to his duty:

"There's nobody, in my mind, who could have done that job. Nobody. Dedicated to it, and very intelligent and youthful. He was a step behind walking, but he was never a step behind as a person."

She also talked about the Queen's grief at her husband's loss, stating that the Duke was her "world" and she would feel "lost" without him.

Earlier this year, Lady Butter received media attention when she returned the Pushkin medal presented to her by the Russian state on President Putin's personal decision.

Additionally, she was also presented with an award in recognition of her contribution in bringing together Russian and Scottish students, and encouraging schools to incorporate written English.