PLAIN-CLOTHES MEN

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 19

PLAIN-CLOTHES MEN

BUCKINGHAM PALACE WATCH

--The return of the Queen to Buckingham" Palace recently broke the monotony of the Watch of the plain-clothes policeman who guards Her Majesty's special entrance fb the palace, says an'overseas journal. 1. Throughout the weeks of the Court's •absence he has stood for eight hours daily under the white-blinded windows of the Queen's boudoir and bedroom. From 5 until 10 p.m. he paces the short path that runs from the walled garden to the corner of: the Georgian facade dominating the wide,, sun-burned lawns. From 10 until lie is relieved at 1 a.m., his,"beat" is the little, terrace under these windows and the windows of the King's dressing-room and bathroom. -v.Here he looks toward. the small sidelawn, where His Majesty, protected .by a temporary' awning, used to' sit during his recent convalescence. Tilt is-dull.work when there is no sign of life in the silent, shuttered palace. There ib no sound but the rattle of the Sentry's rifle as he stands at ease at His box on the palace front, and London's ceaseless traffic beating like a sea beyond the 40 broad acres of the garden. ... But 'it., is necessary work, for curious people have actually, even during Royal absences, scaled the walls and. tried to reach the steps of the palace. There is one story that When the Court was in residence a man, who gave his name as a completely fictitious earl, was stopped by the plain-clothes officer on the staircase inside the Queen's private entrance. Iron spikes have had to be placed outside the servants' quarters to prevent entrance -that way. fThe Queen often stops to talk to the plain-clothes policeman on the terrace ■when she takes a walk there—as she likes to do every evening—about 10 o'clock. The officer who usually watches by the Queen's door is a man who joined the palace seryicoin Queea Victoria's time, fought in the South African and the Great Wars, and finally joined the police force, to become the spedial guard of Her Majesty.

A tablet is to be erected in the Tower «f London to a man who, although he waa a clergyman, produced an invention •which made modern rifles and guns possible. He was the Key. Alexander John Forsyth, the inventor of a detonating powder and the first percussion lock for small arms. Forsyth was born in 1768, at Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, and after his ordination, at the age of" twentythree, he was appointed minister of his satire town.