THE guest speaker at the last monthly meeting of 2016 was Alan Benjamin (Benji), a former police officer who served in both Worcestershire and neighbouring Warwickshire. His focus was on the times that he was assigned to royal duties, occasionally in Worcestershire (although it appears that royal visits are rare – especially to Redditch!), but mainly in Stratford-upon-Avon, where the theatre, quite naturally, is the attraction which lures members of the royal family. Duties for police officers range from placing and clearing no-waiting cones, to forming lines along royal routes and ensuring crowds remain behind barriers. Forming a line can be quite tiring as, when a royal visit is to take place at an exhibition site, for example, there are only two squads of officers. Once squad 1 has attended the first venue, the officers then have to remove their helmets and sprint to the third venue whilst the royal visits venue 2. Once this is complete, squad 2 sprints over to venue 4, and so on throughout the visit. Thus a prince or princess can attend a number of sites under the protection of just 2 groups of officers!

We heard how (as many of them are farmers) a royal can turn up at a showground one day dressed smartly to meet the public, and the next day in their farming clothes. As they are attending as private individuals they can sometimes be hard to spot, so that the risk of a lowly member of the police force putting his foot in it can be quite high!

We were told how visiting foreign royalty is regally treated – taken around in highly polished coaches with uniformed footmen – and how difficult it can be in these circumstances for the supervising officers to know who is the royal and who are the attendants!

Being so often in the presence of royals has a tendency to make even police officers star struck. Having tried and failed to get an image of himself in the same photograph as Princess Diana, Alan was told by a friend of a photo of himself next to The Queen hanging in the Regent Hotel in Royal Leamington Spa. Thus the best laid plans do not always lead to success, whilst pure chance can sometimes bring you what you want.

Which of the royals does he most admire? In terms of star quality – it has to be the Queen. There is no-one more famous in the world. The most hard-working, in Mr Benjamin’s opinion, is Princess Anne. He noted in particular her commitment as patron to the Village Trust (an organisation which restores properties in villages and then makes them available at affordable prices to the children of people who have lived there all their lives) and the obvious friendship between her and the Trust’s director.

Apparently a policeman is empowered to give permission for vehicles to be parked on double yellow lines, if there is a good reason for doing so. Such permission was granted by PC Benjamin to a Chinese delegation visiting the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. This does not mean that such a decision cannot be challenged by a feisty Scottish traffic warden, who sees things only in terms of black or white, never grey! We heard too of an 80 mph dash - with blue lights flashing of course - across to Droitwich in order to pick up a parcel containing a book which was to be presented to Her Majesty, with superior officers leaping out from behind bushes to take possession of said parcel and then surreptitiously ensuring it was placed in the hands of the Director of the RSC just before the presentation was about to take place.

Nothing is too much trouble when it is a question of creating a good impression on the occasion of a royal visit. At 3am on the day that the Queen was due to open the Swan Water Fountain in the Bancroft Gardens, the surrounding area was a building site, with rubble, sand and fencing everywhere. By the time the ceremony took place (with a little help from Cheltenham Town Council) the place had been converted into a beautiful garden with fresh top soil, plants and gravel.

Our thanks go to Alan for an interesting, lively and often amusing talk, which he managed to deliver despite a sore throat.

It being the last monthly meeting before Christmas, members were offered cake and mince pies along with the usual tea and coffee whilst the U3A’s rock band, Upstream, formed in April this year, gave their first-ever public performance. The Committee would like to take this opportunity to wish all Evesham & District U3A members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please remember that there is no meeting in January, but we look forward to seeing those of you who can make it on Wednesday 1st February.

GRAHAME PERCIVAL