The Herzog family's ties to Britain are well known, but the President's family connection to the British Ambassador's Residence—less so. After President Isaac Herzog signed the condolence book for Queen Elizabeth II at the British Ambassador's Residence in Ramat Gan on Saturday night, Ambassador Neil Wigan showed the President and the First Lady the guestroom, known as none other than the "Herzog Room".
The ambassadorial guestroom was named after the President's father, Chaim Herzog, the Sixth President of Israel, born in Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1918. On the wall is a photograph of Chaim Herzog's audience with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in March 1993, near the end of his second term as president.
On the back of the photograph is a handwritten note by then-First Lady Aura Herzog, President Isaac Herzog's late mother, revealing details about this moving occasion. This was the first time, she wrote, that Israel's national anthem was performed by the Coldstream Guards. After the reception ceremony, Chaim Herzog was quoted in the media as saying that this was the best performance of Hatikvah that he had ever heard and that he was surprised when the Guards' commander invited him to inspect the troops in flawless Hebrew.
During the luncheon at Buckingham Palace, according to Aura Herzog's note, Queen Elizabeth made a special gesture to the outgoing president: his meal was served on a plate with the emblem of the Armored Guards Division—one of the units in which Chaim Herzog had performed his military service with the British Army during the Second World War.
