Owner of Australia's largest collection of Royal Family memorabilia ready to expand amassment

Record ID: 1689015

  • Title: Owner of Australia's largest collection of Royal Family memorabilia ready to expand amassment
  • Date: 16th September 2022
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S MEMORABILIA
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2022 01:57
  • Keywords: Australia British royal family Jan Hugo King Charles III Prince of Wales Queen Elizabeth II collector memorabilia royals
  • Location: NULKABA, AUSTRALIA
  • City: NULKABA, AUSTRALIA
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Australia,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Royals
  • Reuters ID: LVA002546215092022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Walking into her kitchen to make tea, Australian Jan Hugo stands next to a plastic figure made in the likeness of Britain's Queen Consort Camilla while preparing her beverage.
    The 64-year old grandmother claims to have the country's largest collections of British royal memorabilia and Hugo is proud to to tell people she has met King Charles and his wife Camilla, now the Queen Consort, before his accession to the throne.
    Having marked Queen Elizabeth's 70th Platinum Jubliee in June, Hugo was saddened to hear of the monarch's death on Sept. 8, saying there were no words to describe Britain's longest-reigning monarch.
    "There's just so many things, you can't single out one thing about her. It was just everything, she was just an amazing woman," Hugo told Reuters on Thursday (September 15) from her home in Nulkaba, in New South Wales.
    Hugo met King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla when they toured Australia in 2015 and she said it was "the thrill of my life" when a tea towel bearing the likeness of the royal couple got their attention and gave her the chance to speak with them.
    Starting in 1981 with a commemorative coin celebrating the marriage of then Prince Charles and Diana, Hugo's collection now comprises of over 10,000 pieces and she is ready for more.
    With the royal family now changing their titles, Hugo has already purchased a dozen pieces to add to her expanding collection.
    "I need a whole new castle, not just a another room to put it in, I think I'm up for a castle now," she said.
    (Production: Stefica Nicol Bikes)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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