: I was quite fortunate. At 16 years of age, I was doing my training at Blackburn College in Lancashire and we had a chef who came down from Buckingham Palace for a lecture at the College. In the summer, out of the blue, he called me up and said, 'Buckingham Palace needs someone to come down. It's the first time they've ever done this and we'd like you to go down and represent Blackburn College, as this could lead to further students going down'. I jumped at the chance.

I worked in the kitchen for about four weeks. I lived in the Palace, saw the preparation of food for the Royal Family. At that time of year the Queen goes to Balmoral (in Scotland) and so she wasn't in residence. That got my foot in the door and I left there with a lot of friends.

A few years later, I was working for a company called Gala Merchants and doing a management course, when I saw an advertisement for a footman at the Palace. I applied for the job, went to London for an interview and sadly, I didn't get the job. But three months later, I got a call out of the blue asking if I was still interested. I said yes and started the following January (1994).

: Duties around the house ? by house, I mean the Palace. After about 14 months I became a Queen's footman, a job I did for about six months. A Queen's footman deals with personal duties for the Queen and (her husband) the Duke of Edinburgh. Well, yes. Obviously I was delighted when I got the job and called my parents straight away. My mother was due to come down to Buckingham Palace with a friend, just to see me. I said to her, 'By the way, you won't be shown around by a footman, but by a Queen's footman'. They knew the terminology. My mother went silent and then asked me to repeat what I'd said. It was great that my family was so pleased for me.Yes, it was personal duties so I would be talking to her as I am with you right now. We travelled with her, whether it was Windsor Castle, Balmoral, Sandringham House or trips abroad, as the Queen usually makes two state visits overseas per year.

I was fortunate enough to go to Malaysia and Brunei, and on a trip of Africa, including Ghana, Mozambique and we did a few days in Pretoria. Nelson Mandela was the South African president then and it was interesting, meeting him one to one.

Then there were the return visits. Nelson Mandela came to London, there was a Japanese state visit and a Hungarian state visit. I was highly involved in those visits, whether it was just basic duties or working on state banquets.

: He was a very early riser and he just said, 'Hello, good morning. How are you?' The protocol was never to get a big conversation with such people. You let them take the lead, because obviously they're busy people.

The Royal Family members are all busy people too. People may not be aware of it, but they are busy. Just because they don't see them out in the street or in the newspaper doesn't mean they're not doing anything. The Princess Royal, who came to Bermuda recently, works especially hard.

: I pinched myself twice during my time in the job. One was when I first got the job. It was January 27 when I started and the Queen was at Sandringham, so Buckingham Palace was pretty quiet. I was at the Palace for two days and then I went to Sandringham and the first time I met the Queen, unofficially, so to speak, was at Sandringham House. After that experience I came out of the room and pinched myself. This was the Queen of England! The next time was when I became Queen's footman. At the end of the day, it's a job that you do in a professional manner ? and that's the same whether I'm working at Henry VIII as a waiter or at Buckingham Palace as a Queen's footman. You have a job to do to ensure that people have a nice meal and don't have a stressful time.

It was 'Your Majesty' at all times. You have to treat people with the utmost respect at all times. We would never call her Ma'am or anything else, not the Queen or any of the Royal Family. The same values apply to ordinary life. It's not just about me calling the Queen 'Your Majesty', it's about people saying 'excuse me, sir' instead of being rude. And that's one of the ways in which the world is going wrong today, I think.

People thought, when I initially went to the Palace, that I would have to speak with a posh accent ? I come from Lancashire and so I speak with a northern accent. But you don't have to do that. You can be yourself and do your job and be professional. That's what they're looking for. It doesn't matter if you come from Scotland or South Africa ? there were a few foreigners working there ? you become part of a family, in effect.

I was lucky to live at the Palace for six years. My room overlooked the courtyard and every morning, a big drum came in and changed the guard at 11 a.m. If you had a late night, you didn't get much sleep, because of those drums. I'd see the crowds of people standing outside Buckingham Palace ? there were thousands.

: One of the jobs of a regular footman is to sit on the back of the Royal carriages. We went off to Ascot and state visits and that was one of our duties. We would sit or stand on the back of the carriage, depending on which stagecoach it was, seeing people taking photographs and cheering.

It's a surreal experience, probably like being a footballer playing in front of a big crowd.

I really got to see what it was all about and I think it's nice that the old kind of Royal Family is still there. It would be a shame to lose that, because Buckingham Palace would become a stately home and it would not be so interesting to people.

: Yes, very good, very personable. You did your job professionally and everything you did was always appreciated. That's the same with all the Royal Family. They would all treat you with respect.

They're a normal family. They live behind security-guarded fences, but they're a normal family, so of course there was humour. But things that went on behind closed doors stay behind closed doors. We all sign the Official Secrets Act when we arrive and when we leave, so you have to be wary of what you say. For the experience, it's a job I'd recommend.

My first trip to Brunei and Malaysia. It was just surreal, thinking, 'I'm in a foreign country with the Queen of England'. You're really well looked after and you get treated like you're a god.

We got to know the staff at the palace in Brunei and they asked us about the Queen. The Queen is recognised across the world and is head of the Commonwealth, so people want to meet her. Out of all the heads of state in the world, it's the Queen who most people want to meet.

Q: Were you ever nervous with the pressure of ensuring that everything was just right for the Queen?

A: No, it's like any job. If the training is correct and people are willing to show you how to do it, then you can learn. In my interview, I said, 'Ill make mistakes, but I'll learn from them'. Yes, and I can tell you it can be quite difficult to walk eight dogs! There were four corgis and four dorgis. A dorgi is a cross between a dachshund and a corgi. They're like a sausage dog but smaller. They're very loving dogs.

Some of the dogs I looked after have since passed away, including Pharos, the corgi who got attacked by the Princess Royal's dog at Sandringham over the Christmas period (in 2003). That was sad. Pharos was a handsome dog, and very quiet.

: Yes, I'd walk them off the lead, but when the Queen had garden parties, I'd put them on leads. They knew my voice, they knew I was the hand that fed them. They knew when I raised my voice that they had to stop what they were doing and come back. Initially they do try to 'take the mickey' by running after people and dogs, until you show them who's boss.

It's another great thing about the job. While some people were stuck in an office, I was walking the dogs in the beautiful grounds of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle or Balmoral. I got the use of a Range Rover to take them out. At Sandringham, I would take them to the public beach, where we'd let them roam around. People would say to me, 'Are these all your dogs? Where do you live?'

Of course, I would always say they were my dogs. It was quite amusing what people would say.

: Everyone asks me that. Diana lived in a different household, at Kensington Palace, and no, I never met her.

The boys, William and Harry, used to come over at Easter and Christmas and they were both nice lads. The press often make out they take after their mother, because of the way they are, but working around them, I could see they take after both their parents. They were always very polite and called me by my name. They've been brought up the correct way.

Harry's been in the paper for a few unfortunate things, but hopefully his rebellious days are past him now.

: Yes, it was a difficult time. But I saw how the Queen's family really pulled together. At the time, the media was asking, 'Where is our Queen?' It was like any family. They were supporting one another.

I saw it first-hand. They rallied around one another, like any family would.

: If you'd just lost someone close to you in your personal life, would you come out and show your emotion on the street? No, people don't do that. It takes time. Lots of them. The Princess Royal, the Duke of York, Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, the Gloucesters and the Queen Mother. She was really nice, the Queen Mum, everybody's favourite. We got into a conversation one day and she told me she'd been to Chorley, where I'm from. She knew a lot about it.

Yes, my parents and my friends as well. Obviously, anyone who comes has to go through a police check. And you have to be responsible for the guests you bring in. They're not permitted to stay overnight.

They allow you to bring one person for a get-together in Buckingham Palace once a year, when the Royal Family attends. I took my mum and she stayed in the Rubens Hotel, close to the Palace. We hired a limousine to bring her to the Palace gates.

The ballroom is like a big U-shaped room and everybody lines up as the Royal Family come through and talk to various members of staff and their families. The Queen was on the other side from where I was and she walked by. My mother was still awe-struck. Then the Queen turned around and walked over to me and started talking. I introduced her to my mum and I've never seen my mum go so quiet. She can talk and talk normally. The Queen then said, 'Enjoy your evening' and moved on.

Then Prince Edward came by and by this time my mum had got some Dutch courage and basically started talking to Prince Edward like she'd been talking to me for years! She had a wonderful evening and she always said that if there was one thing she gained from me working for the Queen, it was that evening, because it was so special to her.

: I was ready to move on, but couldn't find a house management job that really appealed to me. So I came out to Bermuda to work for Henry VIII as a waiter. One of the last things the Queen said to me was, 'Bermuda's a beautiful place'.

I was expecting to come for six months. Six years later I'm still here.

Just like at the Palace, the people I work with in Bermuda have become my friends.

: I've been in Bermuda six years and worked at Henry VIII for all that time. I started off as a waiter in May 2000 and I've been fortunate enough to work my way up and I'm now assistant manager. Bermuda and Henry VIII have been good to me.

Well, we've tried different things and changed the menu. You see staff come and go and you have to maintain the standards. This year we have alfresco dining for the first time and of course tourists and locals like to sit and eat outside.

We get both and we have a good reputation, a good ambience and good entertainment here. It's a really enjoyable place to work. I'm probably working with about 30 staff, including kitchen and restaurant staff and management. What's interesting is the range of different people you meet. Yes, it gets very busy. No. Basically, it's all about having a system which you can use when things get busy. Everybody needs to know what they're doing and then things work out okay.

Yes, we've certainly seen an increase this year. Business has been good. It's nice to see the tourists coming back to places like the Fairmont Southampton and the Wyndham. In the summer, that's where a lot of our business comes from. Let's hope it continues.