As an infant, David Armstrong-Jones, then styled Viscount Linley, reportedly skipped the traditional first words of ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and went for something rather more high-brow: ‘chandelier’. The tidbit was revealed by Gyles Brandreth, the former MP, author and royal expert, in conversation with Dame Judi Dench on the first episode of his new podcast, Rosebud. The broadcaster recounts how Princess Margaret reportedly shared the insight with Laurence Olivier and his wife, Joan, when they joined her for lunch.
Brandreth says: ‘Lady Olivier said to Princess Margaret, “We are very excited because Richard [Olivier’s son] has spoken his first word and it’s such a relief because it was ‘Dada’ and Larry is so happy”. And Princess Margaret said, “Well, as it happens, David has just spoken his first word too… David’s first word was ‘chandelier’.”’
Brandreth explains that the then Viscount Linley was apparently inspired by the chandelier that was hung above his crib in Kensington Palace. It was, he said, the royal nannies who would gesture at the dazzling light fitting as if it were a mobile. No wonder, then, that he pursued a taste for the finer things in life, more often than not crafting them himself.