Tag: Buckingham Palace

Paramedic recognised at Buckingham Palace for volunteer work

A Scottish Ambulance Service paramedic has been recognised at Buckingham Palace for his volunteer work over the past nine years.

Richard Francis, who is based at Callander Ambulance Station, attended His Majesty’s Garden Party earlier this week (May 21).

Richard was invited to attend along with wife Marina MacKay where he was recognised for being the founder of the Leave A Light On (LALO) support group.

The group was founded on the 23rd March 2020 to provide aid, virtual help and a 24-hour support during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Since then, it has grown and over the past few years has housed more than 100 NHS staff, keyworkers and those in emergency situations into free of charge accommodation.

Richard said: “What a lovely occasion and celebration. We had the pleasure of being joined by over 2000 very well deserving honourable members of services, forces, politicians, celebrities and many mayors and religious representatives.
“It’s an occasion we shall never forget and we feel truly honoured to have been nominated and invited to the event.”

The LALO project has provided an abundance of emergency food hampers via referrals from the social services, child protection and domestic violence charities who almost immediately put their trust in Richard’s project.

Richard, who used to be a chef by trade, said: “The group is very passionate about not only supporting and inspiring our next generation of volunteers but also feels it is equally important to celebrate the work of those going the extra mile in the community or family support within difficult times.”

Richard has always been involved in community work. During Storm Desmond, which devastated Cumbria and parts of Lancashire, Richard began the support group ‘The Big Cumbrian Christmas Day Get Together’ which was initially setup in the hope of providing venues for those that had lost their homes to have somewhere to spend Christmas Day and still have the magical day despite all the devastation around.

LALO recently celebrated its four-year anniversary and has over 5,700 regular followers. The group is now a regular source of help for social service teams, vulnerable adult and child protection teams, food banks throughout the county, discharge teams across the counties’ hospitals, wellbeing officers and key workers for those with specialist needs.

Royal recognition for Edinburgh School Uniform Bank

👑 Royal recognition for ESUB!

Our Trustee Julia was honoured to go to Buckingham Palace this week on behalf of all our hardworking volunteers and staff.

Julia & husband John got dressed up to the nines (then soaked to the bone!) at the event hosted by the Prince of Wales.

But what if they had worn their pyjamas instead? Would they have fitted in and enjoyed the occasion?

Clothes really matter, whether it’s a royal event or a wet Wednesday at school. Some children in Edinburgh have gone to school in their pyjamas because that’s all they had.

We work hard to ensure that every child has what they need to fit in and stay warm & dry.

It’s an honour to have our work recognised at the highest level.

Changing the clocks at the official residences of His Majesty The King

This weekend, Royal Collection Trust staff will spend over 30 hours changing clocks across the official residences of His Majesty The King as British Summer Time comes to an end.

A busy team of three Horological Conservators will work through the weekend to adjust the clocks at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

The Royal Collection contains some of the finest historic clocks in existence, many of which are on display to visitors at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

They include musical clocks, astronomical clocks, miniature clocks and turret clocks, and each must be carefully changed by hand to ensure that the times shown remain accurate for visitors, staff and residents.

Tjeerd Bakker, Senior Horological Conservator, said, ‘Clockmakers have been employed by the Royal Household for centuries, and it is a privilege to continue that tradition and to get to work with this extraordinary collection every day.

“Visitors love the fact that the clocks are kept running and on time; they are a key part of the experience of visiting the State Apartments at these working royal residences.’ 

Clocks in the Royal Collection – facts and figures

  • There are over 1600 timepieces in the Royal Collection, including 450 at Windsor Castle, 350 at the London residences of His Majesty The King and 50 at the Palace of Holyroodhouse that will need to be changed this weekend.
  • In wintertime, it takes Windsor Castle’s Horological Conservator over 18 hours to change the clocks there, while at Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace it takes a team of two a combined 16 hours.
  • It takes longer to change the clocks in wintertime as not all clocks can have their hands rotated counterclockwise; the best practice for these clocks is to stop them and return an hour later to start them again.
  • The clocks in the kitchens at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace are always set five minutes fast, to ensure that food arrives on time.
  • The oldest clock in the Royal Collection is the Anne Boleyn Clock, which is reputed to have been given by Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn on the morning of their marriage in 1532.
  • The smallest clocks in the Collection are the tiny clocks in Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, which is on display to visitors at Windsor Castle. Made by Cartier, they measure just centimetres high and have working mechanical movements, but as they would need to be wound daily, they are kept static to prevent unnecessary wear and tear.
  • The largest clock in the Collection is the Quadrangle clock at Windsor Castle, which was built by Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy in 1829 and installed during George IV’s extensive restoration of the Castle. The clock face has a diameter of 2.14m.
  • One of the most important timepieces in the Collection is known as Queen Charlotte’s watch. This unique pocket watch was the first to have a lever escapement and as such is the forerunner of almost all modern wrist and pocket watches.
  • One of the most complex clocks is an 18th-century astronomical clock purchased by George III. The clock has dials on all four sides and is able to show time, strike the phase of the moon, the day and the date, and can show high and low tide in 32 ports around the world.