Duty calls for a kip in the royal Rolls

THERE are various unusual places in which I have slept in my life; for two years, I slept in a hammock. Then I had 15 months under canvas with intermittent nights sleeping on the sand of the Arabian Desert. On Coronation night in 1956, I slept under the bandstand in Hyde Park. I’ve slept on my feet standing up for four hours at a time, as indeed I have slept bolt upright in an aircraft seat for eight hours. I once fell asleep on a train and went three stations past my intended stop. Then in the early Sixties the Queen visited Solihull, staying the previous night in the royal train outside the town in sidings. The Rolls-Royce limousine — the one from which she waves to the people — was garaged up on my police station’s patch, and I drew the short straw to stand guard over it all night. However, human nature being what it is, around about midnight and feeling tired, I got into the back seat. Consequently, I can state that the upholstery of the vehicle designed to give maximum comfort for Her Majesty’s posterior is also ideally suitable on which to get one’s head down and have a good kip! Mike Davies, Nuneaton, Warks.