Britannia, which entered service in 1954, was a beloved retreat and playground for the royal family

The Queen secretly lobbied for a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, it can be revealed.

A senior Buckingham Palace official wrote to the cabinet office saying that the Queen would “very much welcome” a new yacht, but acknowledging that it would be a PR disaster if the lobbying were made public.

The letter — discovered in the National Archives by Philip Murphy of the University of London — was written in May 1995, after John Major’s government announced that the yacht would be decommissioned but before it ended its service.

The Queen cried when the vessel was decommissioned in 1997 ARTHUR EDWARDS/NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS

Sir Kenneth Scott, the Queen’s deputy private secretary, wrote on May 5 that year: “I have deliberately taken a back seat in recent correspondence, since the question of whether there should be a