As the brother of a future Queen, James Middleton has spent a fair amount of time with the Royal Family since his sister, Princess Kate, married Prince William in 2011. While he does not appear at every royal event, James and the rest of Kate’s family have been spotted at a number of major royal occasions and some of the smaller ones behind closed doors too.

One of the smaller events attended by James was a birthday party held for Princess Kate by the late Queen Elizabeth II. While James, who turns 38 today, wanted to make a good impression in front of Her Majesty, it seems this did not go to plan. Writing in his book Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, the dad-of-one spoke about how he was late for the birthday gathering at Sandringham, which resulted in a funny royal blunder.

Recalling the moment, James wrote: "Pippa and I were late for Catherine’s birthday party, which in the normal run of things wouldn’t have mattered too much, but this time the Queen had kindly offered to host the teatime gathering at Sandringham.

“We’d been on a late-night flight to Gatwick from France and arrived bleary-eyed and sleepless at the airport, then I’d driven us both to Bucklebury so we could pack.

"I was fretting about the standard of my ironing – my shirt was rumpled and creased in all the wrong places – and I could only find one cufflink. ‘Come on James, we’ve got to go now,’ urged Pippa as I filled up Ella’s water bottle for the journey.

"We arrived breathless and flustered with barely time to run upstairs and change. I bounded downstairs two at a time and into the room where everyone was assembled for tea, almost running smack into Her Majesty.”

He continued: “She and Prince Philip had got up to leave just as I blundered in with Pippa behind me. All the way up to Norfolk I’d been rehearsing my lines, muttering: ‘Your Majesty’ for the Queen; ‘Your Royal Highness’ for the Duke of Edinburgh. But in my blind panic, I blurted: ‘I’m so sorry we’re late, Your Royal Majesty.’

"I heard a snort of laughter and looked past the Queen to see everyone in the room stifling their giggles. ‘Oh, how lovely to see you, James,’ she smiled. I’d met her several times, notably at my sister’s wedding, and she was always welcoming.”

Despite Princess Kate’s busy royal life, The Princess of Wales, 43, is very close to her siblings and parents, and is believed to see them frequently.

Her family are also very supportive of her royal work, and were last seen publicly supporting her at her Christmas carol concert in December.