CONFESSIONS OF A ROYAL PROTECTION OFFICER
IED [improvised explosive device] go off? What if I open the door now and we take shots? What if I open the door now and the principal falls out of the car because we haven’t parked in the right place and they step into a pot-hole? What if? What if? What if?”
Royal protection policy, as we know it today, was created in the wake of a traumatic episode involving Princess Anne in 1974.
An unemployed labourer called Ian Ball attempted to kidnap the Princess by ambushing her car on The Mall. He shot and wounded four men including the Princess’s driver but was eventually scared off by the arrival of more police and passers-by.
A major overhaul of royal security ensued and by the time Morgan joined the department it numbered 107 officers. He left in 2013 to set up a private security company called Trojan Consultancy to work with people who have “wealth, visibility or status – sometimes all three”. He says: “Lots of the rich business people we work for choose us because of the nature of how we deliver protection, which is in a discreet and unobtrusive manner that allows them to carry on their business.” Trojan – which charges £750 a day for the services of a former royal or ministerial protection officer – was employed by the organisers of the annual ITV gala to look after big stars such as Holly Willoughby and they also provided security for the organisers of the weddings of Pippa Middleton and Game Of Thrones star Kit Harrington. But when one client requested that Morgan “toughen up” his son by teaching him some unarmed combat techniques things went a little awry.
Morgan recalls: “The client asked if we could teach his son some self-protection moves such as heel palm strikes – you don’t use your fists because you’ll break the bones in your hand – and I was teaching him a knee strike – leg back, knee forward – when my Achilles tendon just snapped. That was it, I was out for three months.”
That was in January and Morgan is now back.
He will certainly be watching Bodyguard tomorrow night.
He says: “I suppose it’s asking the the ultimate question: Would you give your life to save hers? The age-old moral dilemma of the bodyguard!”
Simon Morgan is director of operations and training with Trojan Consultancy. For more visit trojanconsultancy.co.uk
Bodyguard begins on BBC One tomorrow at 9pm.