NAMES IN THE NEWS : Queen Uses Her Purse for Tips

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth does more with her purse than use it to carry her lipstick, according to Raymond Fullager, a longtime royal watcher.

Fullager, who writes and lectures on the royal family, told a Charlotte, N.C., audience that the queen uses her purse to communicate 23 different signals to her staff, such as moving it from her right arm to her left arm to indicate that she is bored and needs to be rescued. Fullager, 60, also says the queen is a closet grease monkey.

“She’s the only monarch in the world who can strip down a car and reassemble it,” he said. “She learned how to do that in World War II when she was part of the Women’s Army Corps. She has had to fix her own tire flats.”

Fullager knows more secrets about the queen, too.

“She likes to cook herself breakfast,” he said. “She has her own flat at Windsor Castle, and once she goes inside it and closes the door, she has no staff to wait on her. She prefers it that way.”