I think I've got the explanation for 2. In the question it says "I could only do it when I had the first letter", which implies that there is at least one other 4-letter word that would satisfy the clue, and it worried me that I couldn't find such a word. I thought of 'Cole', 'Lear', 'Tsar', etc but they didn't work. However, I think I've got it: HEAD would work - "a room or enclosed area containing a toilet" and Head of State. What d'ya think?