Tall Paul: Queen Elizabeth’s bodyguard for 44 years – Knew her secrets and always heard her sly jokes

For 44 consecutive years, Tall Paul, 1.80 m tall, was like a guardian angel by her side Queen Elizabeth. This week, after her death, he was given the place of honor in front of her coffin. And, as the Daily Mail reveals, he was the man to whom the late always told her slyest jokes.

Even on a day full of historical significance, it was one of the most striking images to emerge from his procession coffin of Queen Elizabeth from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall on Wednesday.

Tall Paul stood as his unmistakable figure of the Queen’s most loyal, most devoted and longest-serving follower around Queen Elizabeth’s coffin. “Paul Whybrew, the man who was with the Queen until her last breath, was a picture of iron determination,” notes Richard Kay for the Daily Mail. “With clasped hands, he looked neither left nor right, but focused only forward as he strode ahead of the carriage carrying his lady’s coffin.”

It was one of only three men of Her Majesty’s household staff invited to take part in the procession -but his placement in the middle of the crowd underlined not only his seniority as a member of the palace staff, but also his unique place in the Queen’s life.

Who is Paul Whybrew, the most loyal man to Queen Elizabeth

With a height of 1.80 m he was, of course, hard to ignore. But it wasn’t his height that made him so necessary, the Daily Mail reports. Rather, it was that through all the family crises and petty partisanship between staff and courtiers, he was never swayed and escaped unscathed.. According to the report, he is said to have had only friends and no enemies among the royal family, whom he served since the age of 19.

Paul, the second eldest of four siblings, was born in Braintree in 1959 and grew up in Essex. With no tradition in the family as servants at the palace – his grandfather was a manager of a cloth and clothing store and his father a bank manager – the family moved to Frinton on the Essex coast and by the time he graduated from nearby Clacton High School he had already set his mind on royal employment.

His first position was as a lowly servant, but he quickly became noticed by the queen because of his way with corgis. This promotion would be the source of his nickname and would see him working alongside another royal favorite Paul Burrell, who later became Princess Diana’s butler. To differentiate the two men, the queen baptized him Burrell “Little Pol” and the Whybrew “High Pol».

“Keeper of the Queen’s Secrets”

Over the years staff have come and gone, but in the queen’s household Whybrew was a constant presence. His position and the queen’s trust in him earned him another nickname -‘Keeper of the Queen’s secrets».

“He felt his place was at the Queen’s side as long as she wanted him, and the fact is she always wanted him. She trusted him unconditionally and he knew everything, but he would never tell.’

It is remarkable for him and her long life Queen Elizabeththe fact that of all the people of power and influence with whom he associated and all the well-educated and well-paid people who surrounded the royal family, he is the modest son of the bank manager from Essex with whom she was often most relaxed and happy.

His special relationship with Queen Elizabeth

It was Paul who gave the Queen the phone for his distress calls prince harry, who rang from California, the one who filled the Radio Times with the times of her favorite TV programs and the one who, once Queen Elizabeth stopped drinking for health reasons, replaced her favorite drink, gin and Dubonnet, with apple juice.

Son of a bank manager, he was at the Queen’s side for 44 years and, just as she had seen records fall as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, so had Paul. A year ago became the longest serving member of the Queen’s staff at Buckingham Palacefavored with the Royal Victorian Order and the medal – silver and gold – and decorated for his long and faithful service.

She also has her own comfortably furnished apartment, for which she personally paid for the renovation. When the Queen turned 80 in 2006 and decided to spend more time at Windsor Castle, she asked him to move in too. He gave up his humble flat above the old stables at Kensington Palace for a house near Albert Lodge in Windsor Great Park. “The queen told him to decorate it to his taste and send her the bill. She said she wanted to be comfortable,” a friend tells Richard Kay.

This move was a pivotal moment in his royal life. It was the only time he stopped to think about his years of devotion. Inevitably he stayed.

As Page of the Backstairs and Serjeant at Arms, Whybrew, who turns 64 next year, he has devoted his entire professional life to the monarch. Unlike many other servants who moved between households, Paul remained firmly at the Queen’s side.

Arriving right after the Silver Jubilee, he was there for the Gold Jubilee in 2002, the Diamond Jubilee and, just a few months ago, this year’s Platinum. She was there during some of the darkest moments of her reign, the years of her children’s marital discord, but also some of the most important. And of course, it was Paul who was pictured accompanying the Queen and his star James BondDaniel Craig, in the context of the magical parody that opened them London Olympics.

He also played key role in one of the most infamous incidents, when an intruder broke into the Palace and entered the sleeping Queen’s bedroom undetected in 1982. When the alarm was raised, it was Whybrew who calmly led the intruder into the butler’s cellar, poured him a glass of whiskey and then held him until the police arrived.

All these years of service, however, were not without sacrifice. He remained a bachelor, “married” only, friends say, to his duty. But in return has occupied one of the most interesting positions in modern British history.

Even this week, his presence in the environment of the deceased could not be commented on social media. One wrote: ‘Tall Paul, her trusted follower’, while another commented: ‘At the head of the procession, walking behind the band, is this man – the Queen’s entourage and chief constable Paul Whybrew. He has been at the Queen’s side for 44 years of her 70 year reign. Companion as well as servant. Now he accompanies her for the last time.”