We enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining evening with Richard Griffin who served in the Metropolitan Police from 1970 to 2013. Richard brought along lots of medals, letters, invitations and photographs from his time working with the royal family and had many excellent stories and anecdotes to tell us about his years looking after the late Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prince Edward amongst others. From 1983 to 1986 he was the Personal Protection Officer to Prince Edward and accompanied him to University in Cambridge where he suddenly found himself on the stage in one of the Prince’s productions. He then carried out a similar Personal Protection role for the Duke of Edinburgh until 1999 but the Prince’s interests were different. Richard found himself standing in for the groom when the Duke was carriage racing. The only instruction he was given was not to fall off!
In 2013 Richard became The Queens Police Officer. He travelled widely in his role, visiting over 160 different countries, and often accompanied Her Majesty to Balmoral where he enjoyed many hikes with her. On one such walk they came across an American couple who were out walking. They stopped for a chat and the couple asked if the estate was Balmoral and then they asked the Queen if she had met the Queen. She said she hadn’t, but that Richard had met the Queen. They then thrust their camera into the Queen’s hands and asked her to take a picture of them with Richard so that they could show their friends back home that they had met someone who knew the Queen. The Queen obliged. They didn’t want their photo taken with the Queen as she hadn’t met the Queen! Eventually, Richard persuaded them to have their photo taken with the Queen but neither of them let on who she was before they said their goodbyes and carried on with their walk.
The Queen invested Richard with the honour of LVO, Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, on his retirement. Richard and his wife support the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance with their talks on his career as a Royal Personal Protection Officer.
“A fabulous evening. A brilliant speaker – really entertaining.”
“Very entertaining and personable speaker while respecting and honouring the late Queen’s memory.”
“Last night’s talk was a real tonic, laughter throughout!”
“Wonderful talk, really interesting and so real …”
We also had a quick update from local resident Sarah McMichael about the proposed River Quaggy Trail and its part in the Lee Forum Neighbourhood plan, which is currently on course to seek referendum approval on 15 February. Sarah is happy to answer any questions on this issue – please do contact her on 07910 384758. You can find out more about the Neighbourhood plan here.