Essex Royal Warrant holder on meeting the Queen: "She was ever so easy to talk to"
His company have been responsible for restoring rooms in Windsor Castle
An Essex plasterer has been remembering the times he met the Queen.
Jon Joy, from Harlow, is co-director of family business Jon Joy Plasterwork, which holds a Royal Warrant.
The company have been responsible for carrying out restoration work on Clarence House, before King Charles III, then Prince Charles, moved in with Queen consort, Camilla, and Windsor Castle, following the 1992 fire: "We were awarded the contract to do the Octagon ante-room, the Queen's private chapel, and the Stuart Room.
"It was a nice chuck of ornamental plasterwork which meant we worked there almost continuously for two years."
For his work on Windsor Castle, Jon, along with nine other received an honour in the New Years Honours list: "There were about 4000 people working on the project, who all got recognised by the Queen for their work, but I was fortunate enough to be one of nine to get a bigger honour - I was awarded the Royal Victoria Medal."
He remembers meeting the Queen for the first time at the honours ceremony in 1997: "I went up to Buckingham Palace with my wife. The Queen pinned the medal on me and we spoke a few words.
"Her staff train you up before you're allowed to speak with her - they say: "It's jam, not ja-rm, it's ma'am not ma'arm"."
This wasn't the only time Jon met the Queen - a reception is held every four years for recipients of the Royal Victoria Medal, and it was here they chatted again: "The Queen came walking over to me and a couple of guys I knew and just started chatting about the work we'd done.
"It was unbelievable, when you think that people fly half way around the world and queue for hours on end just to try and get a glimpse of her, I was in the same room as her, three feet away, talking to her.
"She was ever so easy to talk to - an expert in making you feel at ease."
He says he's never forgotten what the Queen said: "I can remember exactly what she said. She asked me what I did and if I remembered the scaffolding in St George's Hall.
"I said I did very well, and then she said: "My sister and I went up the scaffolding to look at the ceiling. My sister only went half way up because she doesn't like heights, but I went all the way to the top."
"She was smiling and laughing about it - quite a unique couple of minutes!"
He learned of Her Majesty's death via a text from a friend: "It took a while to sink in. The Queen has been part of my whole life. I've never had any part of my life when she's not been around.
"For someone to be just gone, it feels really weird... I think people will grieve for a really long time over this."
Through his work, Jon has also been able to meet with the new King, Charles III, who he says is just as skilled at talking to people as his late mother was: "He's absolutely lovely. He has a sense of humour - what you see of him joking and being relaxed with people, that's exactly what he's like.
"It's like being with someone in the pub. He's easy to talk to."
Gallery: The Queen in Essex
Tilbury, 1953
