On Duty With the Queen: My Time as a Buckingham Palace Press Secretary Read Free Page B

had been given over entirely to coverage of all things relating to the royal wedding.
    The Queen’s carriage procession left the Palace at 10:22am. The procession, eight carriages long, conveyed every member of the Royal Family, 21 in total, to St Paul’s Cathedral. The groom’s procession – Prince Charles, accompanied by his brother, Prince Andrew, who was to act as his supporter – left at 10:30am.
    A wedding is always a happy occasion, but this had been the most anticipated royal wedding in recent history. Some one million spectators lined the processional route to take in the sense of occasion, the pomp and pageantry. The joyfulatmosphere across London was arresting. And it wasn’t just limited to the Union flag-clad masses. The Queen, often perceived as rather dour, beamed throughout the day’s proceedings. From the moment she left Buckingham Palace in the morning, to when she ran across the Palace forecourt to wave goodbye to Charles and Diana as they left for their honeymoon at 4pm, the Queen was in her element.
    Much has been written about the presence of Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles in the congregation at St Paul’s that day. Simply put, there was no reason why she should not have been there and every reason why she should have been. There was no animosity between Diana and Camilla. She was a long-standing friend of Prince Charles. Her husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, played polo with the Prince regularly, and on the wedding day, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Parker Bowles was commanding the Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry, which led the Queen’s carriage procession.
    Did Charles and Diana love each other? Yes they did, and it was readily apparent in those early days. I witnessed many an occasion when Charles couldn’t keep his hands off her. He would often rest his hand on her forearm, and every now and then give her bottom a light pat when they were out and about on engagements. To suggest that they were never in love is pure conjecture.
    Reflecting on that July day, everything looked to be so promising in terms of a long and happy marriage for Charles and Diana. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had been married almost 34 years, and everyone hoped for an equally harmonious union for the next generation.More than once, Diana told me that she never wanted a divorce. She had, after all, been a child of divorce herself. Unfortunately, their marriage was at the mercy of an insatiable media from day one. No doubt this contributed to its very public ‘he said/she said’ deterioration, which sadly forced them to call an end to their marriage once and for all.
    I suppose the only strange thing about my first day as a press secretary was picking up the office phone to answer my first press call. Suddenly I was responding to the questions instead of asking them. It was an odd feeling, but as I settled into my new role I began to realise that this was a job that was going to suit me perfectly.
    Once I’d had my swim, my first task every day was to scour the daily newspapers for stories; not only royal stories but those which included any mention of the word ‘royal’. I would mark up the pieces so that a synopsis could be delivered to the Queen. Then it was off to press office meetings, Prince of Wales office meetings and the business of strategizing upcoming royal engagements. I took to the job like a duck to water, but continued to find it remarkable that I had even landed the position in the first place. After all, the Royal Family didn’t employ people like me. I didn’t have any qualifications to speak of. I had no university education. I hadn’t served in the British military, and I had no experience working in government. I was for all intents and purposes a hack. All I knew was that I had come a long way from where I had begun.
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    I was born in north west London, in September 1940, about four-and-a-half miles from the royal Palace in which I now worked. I was the son of German Jews. My