As we were driving out of Northolt, come out, turn right
There was
seven or eight people deep,
all or all down the road, all down the A40 in Central London.
And that's when
we were like, obviously we knew
It was big
and really big, but we were like, This is massive and what we've just done.
Nothing will probably ever top it.
I was kind of oblivious to it until we got to the hearse.
We lowered the coffin
and then out of the corner, while I could see
the Royal Family and
members of Parliament, etc., and the media.
And I think, again,
knowing what social media is like now and the press and etc.,
no one wants a bad photo.
No one wants a picture that shows us
in a bad light.
We get scrutinized quite a bit in the military in general.
So we just wanted to do everyone proud at home through the military,
proud of the RAF, proud and the RAF Regiment.
So it was a bit of a kind of
seeing the media.
It did kind of give me a second wave of nerves.
But then
again, you just you try and block it out as best you can.
You're not really thinking about anything.
You're just thinking about your next movement,
where your hands are going to be, any way where you're looking, where
you know, all these little things that we get drilled into us on a daily basis.
You're just you're
listening to the boss, listening to his instructions.
And it was just
you've got to just have tunnel vision,
block everything out and just listen to what you're doing and focus.
And so we we didn't have a phone somewhere,
so we didn't we didn't know what was what was going on.
We didn't say anything.
But I didn't see any I didn't see any media
until I was lower in the coffin.
And as I came down
the ramp, turn left
and the bearer party
OC
Hollinsworth gave the order to turn
As I was lowering, I seen a camera straight at my face
and the only thing I could think of was
whoever's watching this
is watching you.
And it wasn’t nerve racking
because I actually I was I was fully focused on what to do.
But that's kind of going through my head as well at the same time.
And I'm like,
You're all over it.
Like you're all over TV screens now.
Like,
don't mess up
I block all that stuff out.
I think that comes from experience.
The senior officers and
and officers at work, they say, oh, don't look at the don't look at the press.
They'll be there, though.
But because
the experience is
just another day at the office for me, without sounding morbid.
But it's just another another job, another day in the office.
I feel
I'm going to repeat myself.
If you if you
went into a job of that magnitude
with pressure on yourself, I think I think you would buckle.
Personally, I just zone out
because you have to, because I’ve been on funerals before
they’re just extremely emotional.
You just have to zone out
and you just have to get that task done, too, because you want to
you want to put on a good show as it were for the family.
When we left RAF Northolt and the streets were lined
for the 11 miles or whatever it is, from RAF Northolt to Buckingham Palace.
There wasn't one break in the roads.
Everyone throwing flowers the other side of the road had stopped,
everyone clapping.
And that's when for me
it hit home of how overwhelming it was and how big the job actually was.
And I won't be ashamed to say
I shed a little tear
Princess Anne was on there but she was in a different compartment to us.
But once The Queen was taken off and put into the hearse,
once I came off the aircraft, I went into the the VIP lounge
and I was met by the Chief of the Air Staff Defence Secretary and,
well, the former Prime Minister at the time to have a quick conversation.
They were really happy with how we conducted ourselves and
that was quite a good that was sort of the part in the back.
But at that point, it was still quite surreal,
you know, still just going through the motions of such.