The Queen recalls working 'very hard' in 1941 for a life saving badge which she thought was 'very grand'

Watch: The Queen recounts her own experience of being awarded life saving honour

Throughout her long reign, the Queen has amassed an extraordinary collection of priceless jewellery, diamond-encrusted crowns and tiaras.

But as a young girl, she was impressed with something rather more humble, a life saving badge for which she worked “very hard” and which she thought at the time was “very grand.”

Her Majesty, 95, held a video call with members of the Royal Life Saving Society, in which she reminisced about the days during the Second World War when she was taken with her sister, Princess Margaret, to swimming lessons at the Bath Club, a gentleman’s club in Dover Street, Mayfair.

It was there, in 1941, that she became the first young person in the Commonwealth to receive a Junior Respiration Award from the society.

The Queen proudly recalled achieving the badge, as she was told she was the first young person in the Commonwealth to receive the award.

“I didn’t realise I was the first one,” she said.

“I just did it, and had to work very hard for it. It’s a very long time ago, I’m afraid, I think it’s changed a lot.”

Sarah Downs, 20, a student who saved a little boy’s life when she was on lifeguard duty at a swimming pool in Exeter in 2018, asked the Queen what she remembered about achieving her award.

“I did want to ask, Ma’am, because you obviously completed a life saving award when you were younger, what was one of the memories that stuck out for you when you did it?” she said.

The Queen replied: “Well, it’s a very long time ago. I do remember it was of course all done in the Bath Club in the swimming pool.

“And I suppose I didn’t really actually realise quite what I was doing, you know, because I think I must have been 12 or something, 12 or 14 or something like that.

“But 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.”

When Clive Holland, deputy Commonwealth president of the society, told her: “Your Majesty, when you say it was a long time ago, it was in fact 80 years ago, she laughed and said: “That’s terrible!”

Watch: Who is The Queen?

The Queen asked Miss Downs, a physiotherapy student at Manchester Metropolitan University, how she came to win the society’s Russell Medal, which is awarded annually to someone under 18 for displaying bravery and quick-thinking under pressure.

Miss Downs explained that she was on duty and getting arm bands for a boy at Middlemore Pool in Exeter.

“Whilst I was grabbing the arm bands, one of the children actually had a silent fit under the 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 said.

She told the Queen she was still doing lifeguarding. “You are. How splendid,” the monarch replied. “Do you do it at a swimming pool?”

“Yes, I still do it at a swimming pool. I don’t hold my beach lifeguard qualification just yet,” Sarah replied.

“But you’re trying, are you?”

“Yes, I will be soon,” she told the Queen.

The head of state also praised the bravery of another young lifesafer, Tanner Gorille from Cape Town, South Africa, who won the Russell Medal in 2016 after performing resuscitation on a young woman at one of Cape Town’s tidal pools while on volunteer lifeguard duty.

The Royal Life Saving Society was founded in London in 1891 in response to hundreds of preventable drownings in the UK.

The Queen also virtually presented Dr Stephen Beerman from Nanaimo in British Columbia, Canada, with the King Edward VII Cup, awarded every two years in recognition of outstanding contributions to drowning prevention, and which she would present it in person.

The Queen congratulated Dr Beerman for more than 40 years of work in drawing attention to drowning and told him: “I’m very delighted to be able to present you with this cup – a very large cup, which one day you might see if you come to London.”

Her virtual engagement, recorded on May 6 but released today, came after the United Nations adopted a historic resolution on drowning prevention, formally acknowledging drowning as one of the biggest causes of preventable death in the world today.

The resolution - spearheaded by Bangladesh and Ireland - sets out specific actions for each country to take to prevent drowning, and introduces an annual World Drowning Prevention Day which will be marked for the first time this year on July 25.

There are an estimated 235,000 drowning fatalities every year. Around 90 per cent occur in poor or middle income countries.

Watch: What is the Commonwealth?