Not in Front of the Corgis (14 page)

rince Charles once asked his personal protection officer how much he was paying him. When the man replied, ‘Absolutely nothing, Sir,’ Charles was amazed and, at first delighted, as he thought he was getting his protection without having to put his hand in his own pocket. Which was true. None of the Royal Family pays for their police officers, which is just as well as they earn a great deal more than most of the men and women employed in the Household, and the Royals would hate to think they were paying the salaries of these dedicated officers.

Because the bodyguards of The Queen and her family are seen alongside their charges dressed in immaculate suits that could have come straight from Savile Row, many people think they are detectives or secret service agents. In fact, every one of them is a
member of the uniformed branch of ‘A’ Division of the Metropolitan Police, and part of the Royalty and Diplomatic Department that protects not only the Royal Family, but also every foreign emissary in London and the Prime Minister and other Government ministers and officials.

And even though they remain in the uniformed branch of the service they carry out their duties in plain clothes, for which they receive a generous allowance.

The only police officers who wear their uniforms on duty are those guarding the gates at Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, Clarence House and every other royal residence, and the men and women who work in the police post.

The constables on the gates, who these days are armed, earn between £22,680 and £35,610 a year depending on length of service, while the sergeant who supervises them is on a salary scale of £35,610–£40,020. It is a sergeant who sits outside The Queen’s bedroom throughout the night, unarmed and wearing slippers so she won’t be disturbed.

The lowest rank of plain-clothes bodyguard is Sergeant, with most of them Inspectors earning between £47,625 and £51,504.

When they are promoted to Chief Inspector, they can expect to see their salary increased to a minimum of £52,578 up to a maximum of £54,588.

On reaching the rank of Superintendent, they start to make serious money. £60,750 rising by £10,000 eventually to £70,779 and the man who is The Queen’s principal protection officer, a Chief Superintendent, starts on £72,543, which can rise to £76,680.

All these salaries are in line with the pay scale for police officers working in the Metropolitan area, so those who guard, for example, Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire, the home of the Princess Royal, or Raymill House, the private home of the Duchess of Cornwall, which is fully manned throughout the year even though she rarely visits it, are paid at the lower end of the pay scales.

So you can see why Prince Charles was pleased to hear that he didn’t have to pay his bodyguards. The thought that they earned more than his personal staff would have appalled him.

Most personal protection officers remain with the Royal Family for years. Occasionally they will be moved from one member to another, sometimes because they simply don’t get on and the Royal has asked for the officer to be moved, or the policeman or woman, just prefers to work elsewhere. Princess Margaret once had a man removed because of what she complained was his B.O. She didn’t say this was the reason, merely that they were incompatible, but when he moved to another royal lady, who also disliked his body odour, he was quickly relegated to a job miles away from royalty, and everyone knew the real reason.

An otherwise excellent officer who had passed the initial test fell at the last fence through no fault of his own. It was that he had a disfiguring birthmark on his face. The Royals wouldn’t have minded; they probably wouldn’t even have noticed, but the senior officers conducting the final phase of the examination realised that the officer would stand out and as anonymity is paramount in Royal Protection, this man was returned
to his unit, where he later distinguished himself and rose to high rank within the police force.

The late Diana, Princess of Wales, was protected for years by Ken Warfe, who has since achieved
celebrity
status as a television pundit. Mr Warfe was very popular with the Princess and her staff and when he moved from her side it was because she decided, after her divorce, not to continue with royal protection. It is freely acknowledged that if she had retained her official bodyguards, she would not have been in that car in Paris on the night she died; they would not have allowed it.

The junior officers are usually attached to the younger members of the Royal Family, as they often have to stay up late when the Royals go clubbing in London and abroad. When Prince William was single, he and his brother Harry, would often remain at a nightclub until three or four in the morning, and no matter how late it was, the bodyguards had to stay at their side. The younger officers didn’t mind too much, as it meant they were racking up stacks of overtime.

When Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie had official bodyguards, they too were late birds. However, because of the public outcry at the cost of their protection, said to be around £500,000 a year, it was withdrawn in 2010, much to the dismay of their father, the Duke of York, who protested to The Queen. Her Majesty, who normally cannot refuse her children anything, agreed with the recommendations of her Private Secretary, who had been told by the police authorities that they did not consider the Princesses to be at risk, and the protection ended.

Neither Peter nor Zara Phillips, children of the Princess Royal and as much The Queen’s grandchildren as any of the others, has ever had police protection, and Princess Anne has never believed it was necessary.

When her children were tiny they were often seen in the grounds at Gatcombe being carried on the shoulders of one of the policemen, but that was only because their mother was nearby and it was her they were protecting. Several visitors to Gatcombe Park remarked on the apparent closeness of the Phillips children to the police officers, but when it was mentioned to one of them, he dismissed the idea with a laugh saying the children had been taught
practically
from birth to regard them as just another part of their mother’s staff. Even Peter and Zara, the only grandchildren of The Queen not to have titles, were brought up never to become too close to the servants.

There is one disadvantage to remaining too long in royal service; it is that promotion is slow. To move up the ladder, police officers need to obtain experience in other branches of the service. But the majority of those who work at the Palace, and other residences, like the work, enjoy the extensive travel, with generous expenses, and apart from the occasional hassle, it is not too demanding.

Of course, they will always point out that one of their number, James Beaton, who served as personal protection officer to Princess Anne when she was first married, was shot five times as he tried to protect her from an attempted kidnapping in The Mall in 1974. His gallantry earned him a George Cross and the undying gratitude of The Queen and Prince Philip
in saving their only daughter’s life. He didn’t get any monetary reward for his bravery, apart from the £100 a year annuity that is paid to all holders of the GC. Jim Beaton went on to become The Queen’s personal protection officer for nine years and since his
retirement
he has remained on excellent terms with Her Majesty and Their Royal Highnesses.

The man in charge of Royal Protection is a Commander of ‘A’ Division, whose headquarters is at Cannon Row Police Station, but who usually
operates
from a special police station built in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, discreetly hidden behind The Queen’s Gallery, at a cost of £1.6 million in 1982. This was shortly following the arrest of Michael Fagan, the man who was found in The Queen’s bedroom one morning when she woke up.

The money did not come from the Royal Household budget but was entirely financed by the police and Home Office.

The police post – they do not call it a station – is completely shielded from public view and is hidden beneath a mound of earth and grass behind a group of fully mature trees. It is difficult to see, even from the Palace windows.

Inside, the post is equipped with a very high-tech radio communications centre from where they are able to track the movements of every royal vehicle that leaves the Palace. There is also a canteen, even though the men and women on duty prefer to eat in the staff servery, where they say the food is better. There is a map room, briefing room and separate changing rooms for those who work on Palace
security. But there is no bar. Neither are there any cells. If anyone needs to be detained they are driven over to Cannon Row station.

The Police post has its own fully equipped
underground
garage as police cars are not housed in the Royal Mews with the rest of the royal fleet, and the men and women who guard the Royals do not like leaving their private cars on the forecourt as some members of the Household are allowed to do.

A Chief Superintendent commands the Royalty, Special Patrol and Special Escort Motorcycle Group; these are the outriders you see on their high-powered motorbikes, who ride ahead of any royal cars, making sure no one gets in the way and ‘figuratively’ ensuring that all lights turn to green.

A uniformed Chief Inspector runs the Control Room, just inside the Side Entrance to Buckingham Palace, which is connected to the Palace itself, and every other royal residence. So if an incident occurs at say, Highgrove House or Kensington Palace or Bagshot House, the control room is aware immediately and the machine moves rapidly into action. They also have one other link not usually discussed in open conversation. They are in direct touch with SAS headquarters in Hereford, with a system of secret code words related to the seriousness of any incident.

Every police officer attached to royalty is a
volunteer
and they have to be recommended by their
divisional
senior officer before they are subjected to the most rigorous selection process. The slightest blemish on their record means they go no farther but once they do pass the tests, and before they take up their
posts, they attend a special course at the Hendon Police Driving School training them in handling cars at high speed.

They also learn the rudiments of emergency
medical
treatment, and strange as it may seem, have lessons in etiquette and social skills. They have to be
comfortable
in the surroundings that are the norm with their royal charges, so they need to be able to wear morning clothes for Royal Ascot, weddings and funerals, and dinner jackets for formal evening functions. In
addition
, their clothes, both for men and women, need to be fairly loose fitting, to accommodate their shoulder holsters. It is not difficult to pick them out when the Royals are out and about as the bodyguards are usually the only ones with their coats open – again to make it easy for them to reach their guns.

When an officer is accepted for royal duty he or she spends the first six months shadowing one of the others before being allocated to one of the family. They are moved around quite a bit to see how they fit in and they may be chosen personally by one of the Princes or Princesses. They are never asked directly. The system is that a private secretary would mention to the Chief Superintendent in charge that ‘so-and-so seems a capable type. Do you think he (or she) might like to cover A, B, or C?’ In that way, if the answer is a negative, the Royal is not offended. They do not merely accept the next one on the list. It is not a case of ‘Buggins turn’ next, but finding someone ideally suited to a particular member of the Royal Family. A police officer who works for the Prince of Wales might be horrified at being moved to Prince Andrew
or his brother Edward, and equally, they would dislike the thought of having one of their brother’s cast-offs shoved onto them.

f you really want to upset a member of the Royal Family, any one of them, all you have to do is invite them to open a shop, factory or bazaar and tell them in the letter of invitation that you have already tried someone else and they can’t make it.

It is guaranteed to infuriate the Royals as they all see every invitation and decide which ones they are willing to accept.

When Princess Diana was alive she was the number one choice for practically every event, and organisers, in the mistaken belief that there is a central clearing house at Buckingham Palace that allocates
engagements
around the family, often used to ask if Diana couldn’t make it would one of the others stand in for her.

Even today, every member of the Royal Family receives far more invitations than they can accept,
and those planning events sometimes still ask the first-choice Royal to pass on the invitation if he or she cannot make it.

The private secretaries of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal, all have a standard reply that is icily polite but curt, and states, couched in ‘Palace speak’ that the person inviting their particular Royal should always make it a personal invitation to him or her
specifically
. In other words, ‘We are not in the business of Rent-a-Royal.’

There is a pecking order and in the current Royal Family the Prince of Wales gets the choice of the more glamorous engagements, with the Princess Royal, the hardest working member of the family, receiving those that she has sometimes described as ‘less interesting than others’. The second division of the Gloucesters and Kents, including Princess Alexandra, appear to get the leftovers.

The newest Royal couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are already being inundated with requests, both for visits and for the Duchess to become President or Patron of hundreds of
organisations
, both civilian and military. As was proved in their first overseas visit as a married couple, to Canada and the United States, they are being seen as the natural successors to the late Diana, Princess of Wales in the glamour stakes. Back in the United Kingdom, they are effortlessly overtaking the rest of the family as the stars of the future. Instant celebrity is now the name of the game, even among the Royal Family, and the others will inevitably move farther
down the league table as William and Catherine gain in confidence and become more accessible. They will soon find out that their relations do not welcome competition – from any source.

On a visit to the United States, a country he adores, the Prince of Wales was addressed by a well-meaning American: ‘Hi Prince.’ His Royal Highness was not amused and his private secretary was instructed to inform future hosts that if fellow guests could not manage his full title, he would prefer a plain ‘Charles’. Anything but ‘Hi Prince’.

When Princess Margaret was a child and accompanied her parents on a visit, she often asked her nanny when they returned what the funny smell was wherever they went. The nanny didn’t have the heart to tell that the smell was fresh paint and that whenever the King and Queen made a visit, everywhere was painted to make it look like new.

One thing all the members of the Royal Family have learned is how to keep a straight face when meeting
people whose knowledge of the background of royalty is perhaps limited. The Princess Royal was on a
fundraising
visit to Houston in Texas when one of the major contributors asked her to ‘congratulate [her] mother on being re-elected’. She thanked him and promised to pass on his kind remarks.

Diana, Princess of Wales was once asked how her father, Winston Churchill, was keeping. Apart from the obvious error, the person asking the question didn’t seem to realise that Churchill had been dead for over thirty years and Diana was then still in her twenties.

Members of the Royal Family, without exception, hate it when guests overstay their welcome, as they themselves are always punctual in arriving, and just as prompt when the time comes for them to leave. Other guests are sometimes reluctant to go, so the family have devised codes to let their servants know when it is time for the guests to leave. They summon a butler and ask if the guest’s car has arrived. On
hearing
this the butler disappears for a moment and then announces that Lord and Lady so-and-so’s car is
waiting
in the drive. The royal host then rises and bids the guests farewell, and it’s a very thick-skinned man or woman who doesn’t take the hint after that.

A well-trained butler or footman can usually get the better of even the most arrogant visitor. On one
occasion
, Lord Mountbatten invited his old friend Frank Sinatra to a reception at St James’s Palace. When Sinatra arrived he was accompanied by half a dozen of his entourage – all very large, sinister-looking
gentlemen
. The butler asked to see their invitations, as he knew that Mr Sinatra had been invited to come alone. Sinatra tried to bluff his way in saying, ‘They are with me.’ The butler stood his ground and refused to allow the bodyguards to enter St James’s Palace. Eventually, Sinatra went in on his own and complained to Lord Mountbatten at the high-handed way he had been treated. Mountbatten replied that the butler had been quite right and was only obeying orders. It must have been a rare sight to see the lone figure of the butler standing up to Sinatra’s ‘heavy mob’ – and living to tale the tale. Mountbatten later congratulated the man on his courage.

The domestic staff at Buckingham Palace usually get on quite well with their superiors in the Household. But there have been occasions when they have felt it necessary to make their displeasure known. During a long-haul overseas flight, it is the custom for staff, who have all arrived in their Sunday best, to change
into more comfortable, casual clothes for the
duration
of the flight. They do the changing acts in the privacy of the tiny, cramped lavatories. On one flight to Australia, there was a long queue immediately after take-off, when the Mistress of the Robes, the Duchess of Grafton, pushed her way to the front, claiming senior priority. One self-admitted gay footman, well down the line, exclaimed, in a tone everyone could hear, ‘Well, that’s the first time I’ve ever known a Duchess take precedence over a queen.’ Her Grace pretended not to hear and continued to the front.