I once had an Easter break in Spain and got chatting to a couple who had retired there, having lived in London all their lives. The man, who was a typical, cockney wideboy type, was a retired plumber who had worked for Royal parks and gardens. He used to get tasked to go to Kensington and Buckingham Palaces on occasion to sort out problems with the gaslights. He said you were told not to speak, or even look at the member of the RF if they passed them in a corridor, or if they were even in the room, they were working in. He was once repairing a fitment in the Queen's private sitting room at Buckingham Palace - the maid brought a tray of tea, biscuits, and China cups in, and HMQ dismissed her. She then commanded, "Young man (he was mid-to-late-40s at the time) ...sit down and let me pour you some tea, while you tell me all about how those lights work and why that one keeps breaking." I can't imagine how surreal it must have been to have been poured a cup of tea by HMQ! A year or so later, he was being escorted through a corridor at the palace to do another job and he heard the Queen exclaim, "Oh, there's ****** … ******, do you know, that light has never been a bit of trouble since you fixed it...how's the family, has your daughter finished at university?"
He said the nicest Royal he ever met was Princess Diana - he was once doing a job at KP and, she was still married (in name only) to Chuck at the time and she said to him, "I know you've been told not to speak to me, but I'm terribly bored. Please sit down and tell me about 'life out there'.”
Because of his Royal connections, a certain knighted singer, curried favour and a group of men from Royal parks and gardens were assigned to do a job at his country pile in the late-80s. They were taken there in a mini-bus, with blacked out windows and when they declined to meet, what I’ll refer to as the additional needs of said singer, they were swiftly transported away in the same mini-bus and dumped in the middle of nowhere...
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