TOUR OFFICIAL HONOURED

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27246, 13 January 1954, Page 3

TOUR OFFICIAL HONOURED

INFORMAL MEETING WITH QUEEN

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 12;

For the first time since the Royal tour of New Zealand began, Flight Lieutenant B. W. T. Richards, attached to the Royal party as baggage officer, was able last evening to say to his wife when he returned home, “Let’s go out.” And they left their home at 63 Waitoa road, Wellington, to relax.

It was also the first time that Flight Lieutenant Richards was missing when his telephone rang and a voice asked for him. His father answered, and received a request that Flight Lieutenant Richards, his wife, and their two elder daughters should present themselves at Government House to see the Queen.

They were traced, and in a flurry he and his wife returned home from the city, picked up and dressed their children, and within half an hour they were at Government House—Flight Lieutenant Richards in a lounge suit which his wife had not time to press, and which has had about 1200 miles of travel on the tour so far.

With Flight Lieutenant Richards’s unromantic title goes one of the most unromantic, prosaic yet exacting tasks of any of the tour officials. His is the responsibility of collecting and forwarding all the baggage of each member of the Royal party, then distributing it piece by piece where it is required by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and their suite.

Flight Lieutenant Richards and Mrs Richards have three children—Patricia, aged 10, Rosemary, aged nine, and Virginia, who is three months old.

Mrs Richards said later that she thought the Queen was most observant because she saw the Royal visit medals pinned on the dresses of the children.

‘‘The Queen touched Rosemary’s medal and said: ‘I have one of those, too,’ ” Mrs Richards said.

The Queen spoke for ‘‘quite a long time” to Flight Lieutenant Richards, and said she thought everything was going well, that the organisation was good, and that he had a big job to