Ex-porter’s gem of a job at the Palace

Aug 6 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

A FORMER Royal Liverpool Hospital porter has been hand picked as one of the first ever ‘regular’ soldiers to guard the Queen and the Crown Jewels.

Earlier this year, Corporal Scott Johnson was serving in Afghan-Istan providing vital communi-cations that allow the command-ers to tackle the Taliban.

Now, having barely shaken out the desert sand from his boots, the married father-of-two has found himself in the prestigious position of being placed on guard outside Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, St James’ Palace and the Tower of London.

The Clubmoor Comprehensive pupil was chosen for the three month post where his responsibi-lity is to protect the Royal Family and the Crown Jewels – as well as serving as a major tourist attraction for the thousands of visitors to flock to London’s famous palaces.

Cpl Johnson is one of a number of soldiers from 16 Signal Regi-ment who are guarding Bucking-ham palace this summer for the very first time. The Regiment are the first members of the Royal Corps of Signals to ever have had the honour of conducting cere-monial public duties, a task norm-ally reserved for the Guards Div-ision with distinctive bearskins.

The 32-year-old said: “I feel very honoured and privileged to have been selected by my Regiment to protect the Palace. My parents and my wife Maxine and kids James and Jasmine are very proud that I am in London on public duties.I think my parents have told the whole city of Liver-pool their son is going to guard the Queen and the Royal Palaces.”

Cpl Johnson’s added that his parents Daniel and Joan, who still live in Liverpool, said they can’t believe their former porter son is now meeting thousands of tour-ists who flock from all over the world to Buckingham Palace each day to see the famous changing of the guard ceremony.

Cpl Johnson, based in Elmpt, Germany, added: “Joining the Army was the best thing that I ever did. I have been all over the world. Now I am here on guard in London which is a huge honour.”

Major Bill Anderson, command-er of the Public Duties Squadron said the new tasking is symbolic of how the Corps has grown from a troop of engineers in the Boer War, to one of the largest units within the Army.

He said: “It is exciting to be a part of The Queen’s Guard and a great honour. The guys have put in a lot of work to learn the cere-monies and are extremely impressive to watch. The skilled operators, engineers, and techni-cians are fighting soldiers and appear as much at home march-ing down The Mall as they are running the complex communi-cations networks in Afghanistan.”

carolineinnes