“The Queen always turned up at Lord’s to watch the West Indies. I was very fortunate because on the occasions when they came to watch, I somehow performed,” he said.

“It was really wonderful for me to be associated with the Queen, the Duke and even Prince Charles. I knew him quite well too.”

The warmth shared between Sir Gary and the Royal family reached such an extent that he was able to repay the hospitality they had shown him when Princess Margaret came to Barbados.

“She borrowed my car,” he said. “When they arrived, people went to pick her up at the airport and I took my little girl. As they passed our way, she said: ‘Look, look, that woman’s in my daddy’s car!’”

Time has done little to diminish the high regard in which Sir Gary holds the Royal family and, according to his wife, the Prince of Wales even told him that the Queen had requested that he pass on her regards during a visit in 2019.

“We got on very well, they were wonderful people. There was lots of laughter, lots of jokes,” Sir Gary said.