Whispers of Her Majesty’s death reached fever pitch on social media and appear to stem from a screenshot of a Whatsapp group message last night, with a 5.49pm time stamp.

In it, ‘Gibbo’ writes: ‘Queens passed away this morning, heart attack, being announced 930 AM tomorrow (sic)’

But after 9.30am passed today, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman played down the rumours and told Metro.co.uk it was in fact very much ‘business as usual’.

The Palace says it never comments on such rumours, which are not uncommon.

The group chat – which also includes ‘Burnsy’, ‘Cheeks’, ‘Josh’ and ‘Morty’ – features an image of a penis as its picture.

In his message, which has been widely shared on Twitter and seen ‘Gibbo’, #GodSaveTheQueen, #QueenDead and #BuckinghamPalace trend on the site, Gibbo continues: ‘Channel dash 0800 tomorrow in full number 1s, in your black kit bag you need : 1 set of 3s 1 set of 4s Underwear and socks for 2 weeks (sic)’

‘From a guards reg Whatsapp group’.

His suspicious pal ‘Ricey’ appears to be unconvinced by the suggestion, writing: ‘Yer balls, has to be a wind up.’

Gibbo’s real identity remains a mystery – but that has not stopped Twitter from making jokes about him and the whole saga.