Baby bump catches King’s eye as sailors honoured with medals
A sailor’s baby bump caught the King’s eye when he presented medals to the Royal Navy as a personal ‘thank you’ for their role in the late Queen’s funeral procession.
King Charles III awarded honours from the Royal Victorian Order (RVO) – in the King’s gift and bestowed independently of Downing Street – to around 150 sailors and officers who played a prominent role on the day Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest.
Almost 100 Royal Naval Ratings, known as a Sovereign’ s Guard, pulled the gun carriage carrying the Queen’s coffin as it was borne from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch in the capital, and 40 marched behind, acting as a break.
At the Windsor Castle ceremony, heavily pregnant medical assistant Paisley Chambers-Smith was awarded a silver Royal Victorian Medal for pulling the gun carriage with her colleagues.
Ms Chambers-Smith is a medic working alongside civilian medical staff at Queen Alex and ra Hospital in Cos ham when not on deployment.
The 25-year-old said after the open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle: ‘It’s not something I imagined doing so soon in my career. The training was so hard but worth it, and on the day it was a massive honour to be there.’
She was joined by her partner, Sergeant Stephen Leonard, 34, a Royal Marine, who was a member of the street lining party stationed along the route the coffin passed, and was standing guard in Parliament Square.
Ms Chambers-Smith, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, said about the funeral day: ‘Massive to be there. Pride took over when you walk through the streets of London and just knowing that you’re there and a part of history forever.’
Commenting on her brief chat with the King, who presented mostly medals alongside some higher RV O honours, she added: ‘He was asking how the training was for the funeral, which was hard – it was tough and the new boots hurt your feet.
‘He asked when the baby was due and how it was, standing in the heat.’
With her baby expected in July, Ms Chambers-Smith stepped out of the three rows of Royal Navy personnel receiving honours and was given a seat after her presentation.
In the bright sunshine, six naval ratings were helped off the parade ground after apparently fainting – but at least two returned to receive their medals.