So seeing us walking through in our splendid red and gold uniforms , very distinctive looking , there go those greedy beefeaters .
So seeing us walking through in our splendid red and gold uniforms , very distinctive looking , there go those greedy beefeaters .
alive . And I think of those only one died eventually . Well they got him to hospital but he was alive when he left us .
As well as the general public you must have also met plenty of public figures and celebs ? Yes , loads and loads of celebs . I mean you start obviously , the ultimate , the Queen of course , but I would not call her a celebrity . But most of the royal family I have met , who have come here over the years and certainly the last five years in my job as Chief .
I came here in 1998 and I was promoted to Yeoman Sergeant in 2004 . Then in 2011 I was promoted again to Yeoman Jailer . I was only a Yeoman Jailer for around 8 months and then got the top job as Chief Yeoman Warder now for the last five years . And it is in the last five years that you get more involved in the ceremonies . It is about a 12 to 14 in a year depending on what year you are in . And as a Yeoman Warder you probably only get involved in one of them through that period . As Chief I get involved in all of them . So … and a lot of them involve members of royalty in many cases . So in 2014 we had the poppies of course and we had pretty much all the members of the royal family came and I had to be there on hand to make sure that they are looked after and welcomed and so on . Then going on from that there are lots of celebrities that I have met , TV and film stars and so on , Sharon Stone …. Sylvester Stallone I have met .
Have you ever been star struck by anybody ? Not really star struck I would say . I am a Trekkie as well , I love Star Trek and I quite like Lord of the Rings as well , the film , and we had Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan come in last year and I met them . Yes , Patrick Stewart , I had to do it ... “ Make it so ” ( laughter ) but it was quite nice . It was only a brief meeting but it was nice because I was able to have a quick chat with Sir Patrick Stewart which was rather nice .
Who is the nicest celebrity you have met ? Well , I do not know . They are all very nice , those that you do meet . They are all very different to how you see them on TV or on the screen , but I am just trying to think …
Or maybe flip it the other way , who was the least nice that you have met ? There were people that … I mean tongue in cheek ones , we had Jedward . I mean I cannot do that type of thing , it is beyond me . But on the other side of the coin , some of the surprises , Sylvester Stallone was a pleasant surprise . He was a very , very nice chap and quite knowledgeable in English history which when you sort of look at him on screen , in his Rocky films , you tend to sort of put him in a box do you not . That was a surprise I have to say .
Which story about the history here do you like to tell the most ? When you become a Yeoman Warder , you are taught the history of the Tower of London , that ’ s from 1078 up to the current date , so you ’ re taught all the aspects of it . It ’ s not just the fact that it was a prison , which you know , it was also a menagerie , it was the Royal Armouries and where the Crown jewels are kept . There are all other different aspects of the Tower and doing the guided tours means giving a complete overview of all of that history , a potted history if you like in such a way that it ’ s entertaining and it ’ s factual .
There are lots of nice stories that I like to tell . With some of the gruesome ones that you can tell , you ’ ve got to be very careful because people faint if you get too graphic about them . I quite like some of those more gruesome ones like the Monmouth story . James Scott was the 1st Duke of Monmouth and at his execution it took five attempts to get his head off you know , things like that , so those are quite fun to do without getting too graphic as I say . But on the other side of it , nice ones are talking about some of the methods of escape from the Tower , from a prison point of view , such as the one about dressing up as women , they ’ re quite fun to do as well . You ’ ve got to pitch it right because you will have all the demographics from young children right the way up to grand mothers .
I quite enjoy doing explanations of the chapel , the Chapel of St Peter because there ’ s lots of information in there and I like the Chapel . While the executions took place outside a lot of people were buried inside the Chapel . My children have been
married in the Chapel so there are happy events and there are not so happy events so it ’ s got a variety of stuff . But I really do thoroughly enjoy telling these stories , that is the one aspect of my duties as a Yeoman Warder that was the best for me , interacting with the public , with the visitors and telling the story .
So other than the historical bits , I ’ m sure the Tower has its fair share of ghosts ? No , no ghosts .
No ghosts ? You know we ’ ve had a lot of documentaries here ; we ’ ve had people with specialist equipment and things like that . There are ghost stories , don ’ t get me wrong , there are loads and loads of ghost stories but that ’ s what they are , stories .
Whether you believe in ghosts or not I don ’ t know , I ’ m not going to say yay or nay to it , I personally don ’ t believe in it , but there ’ s reasons why noises occur and things fall off the wall and things like that , there ’ s a logical reason for these things but they do happen .
Particularly in buildings of the age that we ’ re in . Yes , and it ’ s age you ’ re talking about , because lots of sinister events took place here you know , the murders of the two boy princes for example and those sort of things , there are lots and lots of those events that have gone on over the years , and who ’ s to say ? We used to offer guided ghost tours within the Tower of London because there ’ s lots and lots of stories as I say about various different events . We get pictures sent to us from America of people seeing gloved hands pointing into the moat and things like that , you don ’ t know , how
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