Couple enjoy Royal event

“The ceremonies were both very different. The Trooping the Colour was very formal,” said Joanna, who was in the city representing the Waterside Branch of the Royal British Legion.

While senior and junior Royals took part in the Trooping the Colour, with Prince William riding behind the Queen for the first time, it was his younger brother, Prince Harry, who wore his Household Cavalry’s Blues and Royals uniform with his blue Army Air Corps beret, who officiated at the Chelsea Pensioners Founders Day celebration, making him the first serving officer since the Duke of Kent in 1974 to review the Founder’s Day Parade.

Indeed, Les seemed very taken with the parade at the Chelsea Hospital famous for its red-coated pensioners.

“The Chelsea Pensioners was formal but there was a very human touch to it and you got to see the less formal side of the Royals in action,” he said.

“Prince Harry was very warm and sincere, very genuine and he spoke to nearly every one of those guys on parade and there were about 300 or 400 of them. He was very genuine with the way he approached people and got up close to them,” he said.

Joanna concurred: “I thought Prince Harry was very down to earth. I thought his speech was very sincere and I think because it has been a long time since there was a serving officer inspecting the officers his speech was very from the heart, I think he had empathy with the Pensioners in the life that a soldier will have and he talked about how the Army was a family and how it must be like joining a family again when they joined the Chelsea Hospital.

“He brought a lot of humour into his speech when he talked about the Chelse Pensioners drill being better than his brother’s because Prince Harry is in the Army Air Corps, while Prince William is in the RAF and Colonel-in-Chief of the Irish Guards,” she said.

Trooping of the Colour was on the Saturday, and Joanna said she found it “a very humbling experience”.

“I think the huge sound coming from the band and the men performing that fantastic drill was amazing and to see the crowds at Buckingham Palace afterwards was something else. It was privilege to be there representing the Waterside Branch of the RBL,” she said, adding: “We want to thank the Chelsea Pensioners because they were the ones who invited us and we hope to see them back here in November for Remembrance Sunday.”

Her husband was also very taken with the massed band of the Brigade of Guards: “The band was fantastic. It made you feel very proud to be there,” said Les.

“The crowds trying to move afterwards was manic. After the parde is over the Royals go back to Buckingham Palace and there is a Changing of the Guard, but we didn’t see that because we were too far away: But at 1pm the Queen came out onto the balcony with the whole Royal Family and there was a huge uproar from the crowd when they came out, and they did the fly past of the different aircraft, helicopter’s, World War 2 aircraft, Euro fighters, and then came the Red Arrows. Of course the Red Arrows had all the coloured smoke coming out the back and after that the Royals all waved and then they went back inside the Palace. It was very memorable. I will never forget it,” he said.

But that wasn’t quite the end of the ‘spectacles’ that London had in store...

They also had an unexpected ‘spectacle’ on their way home from the Trooping the Colour when their taxi passed the London Naked Bike Ride and they were contronted with thousands of bicycle riders and roller skaters of all ages ‘in the rude of health’ peddling furiously across one of London’s many bridges.