Sir William Heseltine has died at 96 - the man who was Elizabeth II's right hand for almost three decades and who changed the British monarchy into something that seems obvious today: that the Queen must be seen. Born in Australia, he was the first Australian to become the Queen's private secretary, a post he held from 1986 to 1990. Those who watched them up close say the Queen called him "my Bill".

His career at the palace began with an admission that would disqualify any candidate today. When he arrived at the press office, he said he had never worked with journalists before. The reply was that this "would probably be considered an advantage". That same man with no media experience would later be remembered as the one who opened the Crown up to them.

Heseltine understood that the institution had to become more human without losing its ceremonial weight. He is credited with the walkabouts, when members of the royal family greet people directly in the street, as well as the famous 1969 documentary about the royal family's everyday life. He didn't play modest about the film: "I'll put modesty aside and say that essentially I was the man who thought up the idea and carried it out."

His philosophy fits in one sentence: "While it was not the role of the monarchy to be too avant-garde, it could not afford to fall too far behind the times." That conviction also produced his proposal that the royal family start paying tax earlier than it eventually had to, and during media crises he called speculation about the Queen's political views "groundless". How many institutions in the Balkans have someone on the inside who will tell them they can't afford to fall too far behind the times - and how many would listen?

The Queen valued his relaxed manner as they went through the newspapers together. Most of the anecdotes come from summers at Balmoral. Once he grew a beard there, and the Queen gently told him: "Well, I suppose it's all right up here." Heseltine got the message and shaved before returning to London. On the hunt in the Scottish Highlands the rules were strict: every wounded stag had to be tracked down and finished off, and then everyone drank the small glass of whisky they were given.

He showed a calm head in state crises too, such as the stormy dismissal of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. He got the news at three in the morning. "I thought that at that hour I wouldn't wake the Queen, since she couldn't do anything about it anyway," he recalled, so he told her in person at breakfast. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard described him as "a true son of Western Australia" who served his nation and his sovereign with great honour, keeping an impeccable line between his own convictions and the advice he gave the Crown.

After the Queen's death, Heseltine described her in a single sentence: "I believe that, like everyone who knew her, you left the room comforted." He joked about his own origins to the end: both sides of his family arrived in Australia with the First Fleet, the convict ships - although, as he was quick to add, neither of them was among the convicts. He never lost that irony, not even when talking about himself.