ROYALTY’S WATCHDOG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 148, 25 June 1930, Page 14

ROYALTY’S WATCHDOG

QUEEN’S OWN POLICEMAN PLAIN-CLOTHES SLEUTH’S TASK How would you like to be the Queen’s own special private policeman i Those who can look over the spiked railings at the back of Buckingham Palace any night, the railings that are near to the servants’ quarters, will “See the Queen’s policeman. He is a very striking-iooking man when you see him close to. But he is not resplendent in uniform. He wears quite an ordinary lounge suit and, indeed, never appears in uniform. Even when the Queen is away from London, his job goes on. But it is then of far less interest and seriousness, although there are tremendously valuable items in the Queen’s private rooms which arc the special and sole charge of this officer. The duty of the Queen’s policeman is to keep the special night watch over the Queen’s personal apartments at Buckingham Palace. His smart civilian clothes would disarm any prying stranger from suspecting that he was a guard. There is, of course, a very important idea in this arrangement. If there are to be pryers about the Pa.ace —and there have often been —it is better that they should be caught, and their business and identity discovered, than that they should be merely frightened away. The charge of the Queen’s policeman is directly underneath the Queen s own boudoir and bedroom and immediately outside the Queen’s personal private entrance to her section of the palace. There is another Queen’s policeman, also in plain clothes, whose “boat.” is the staircase just outside the Queen’s door. Queen’s Friendly Chat But let us turn again to our romantic policeman outside the door itself, for his “beat” is of the greater importance. From five to ten o’flock each night he patrois the short path that runs from the walled garden to the corner of the facade that overlooks the wide lawns at the back of the patace. At ten p.m. his beat extends to the path that runs under the King s dressing-room and bathroom. At the end of this path he looks over the small side-lawn where, during the summer, the King usually has a specia* awning erected for him to take the evening air without danger of chill. And here is where a pleasant and romantic part of this policeman’s beat often happens. Even in these days the Queen loves to take an “airing” s troll along the terrace about ten o’clock. And almost invariably Her Majesty will pass a few words, and sometimes even indulge a long chat with her own special policeman. Here is his story in brief. In the days when Queen Victoria was on the throne he was a member of the Buckingham Palace staff. He fought in the South African and the Great Wars with distinction and then returned to his palace duties. But it wa s only in order to become the Queen’s'own special and personal policeman that he joined the force.