The ‘Union Jack Man’ awaits royal developments
78-year-old will greet heir to the throne
Terry Hutt was four years old when he met Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, during the first days of the Blitz in the fall of 1940.
Although always an ardent royalist, it was not until 1998 that Hutt had an epiphany of sorts. He wanted to see the Queen Mum again. To get her attention he dressed himself from head to toe in the Union Jack and headed off to her home at Clarence House. Spotting Hutt as she was passing by in a horse-drawn carriage, the much-loved dowager directed one of her bodyguards to invite the former soldier from the Royal Ordnance Corps to attend her annual birthday party.
That is how the self-described “Union Jack Man” became a fixture at royal public appearances. In a roundabout way it explains why he has been sleeping rough under the British flag on a park bench across from the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital. Some time in the next few hours or days, this is where Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is expected to give birth to an infant who may one day succeed Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Prince William as the king or queen of the United Kingdom and Canada.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am about this and how badly I want to be here on the day,” Hutt said. “Prince William will be here, of course. I expect his brother, Harry, may visit, too, because they are so close. I am not sure about the Queen. She may wait until the baby goes home.”
An experienced royal spotter, the 78-year-old retired carpenter confessed that he had devised a plan to try and see William and Kate as they entered the hospital.
“I know what they get up to, so I’ve done my homework,” he said, slyly. Without giving away his secrets, it involves positioning himself at one of the three side and back entrances to the wing.
“If I miss out on that, I will be there when Prince William comes out to speak to the press once the baby is born because I want to present him with a card congratulating them,” he said. “The police will have erected barriers everywhere. I’ve already spoken with them and they say that I can be inside the perimeter.”
Princess Diana brought William home 24 hours after his birth. Barring medical complications, Hutt reckoned the timetable would be about the same this time.
“My thoughts are pretty simple about this,” said Hutt, who has been married 51 years and has a daughter and three grandchildren.
“I wish for the royal family a healthy baby and a healthy mother. That will make them a happy family.”
The Lindo Wing is in a quiet back lane about a fiveminute walk from the bustle and din of Paddington Station. It is 10 minutes away by car from Kensington Palace, where the royal couple are to soon move into refurbished digs long occupied by the Queen’s late sister, Princess Margaret.
Hutt has been the only royalist maintaining a constant vigil at the hospital. But he has hardly been alone. There has been a constant police presence for days, joined for a time on Saturday by a police explosives team that seemed particularly interested in checking out the street’s light fixtures.
As well as scores of journalists from just about everywhere, who have been baking in unusually hot, sunny weather, 13 satellite trucks were parked nearby and 91 photographers’ stepladders have been crammed into two pens across the street from the front door of the Lindo Wing, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expected to briefly pose for photographs with their baby when Kate is discharged from hospital.
With no official word from the palace about when Will and Kate’s baby might be born, London’s tabloids had guessed that it would be Saturday, July 13. But that date has come and gone.
Having spoken with doctors and nurses at the hospital, the Union Jack Man confided on Sunday: “I have a feeling it is going to be today or tomorrow.”
That would certainly please the media hordes who have been staking out the hospital for a fortnight. But in a possible sign that the royal baby may not make his or her debut for a wee while yet, the duchess spent the weekend escaping the summer heat of London at her parents’ Georgian-style estate in Berkshire while Prince William spent the weekend playing polo with his brother at charity matches in two nearby shires.