Royal invite for milkman who’s never missed a round

THE PRINCE of Wales yesterday hailed a milkman who has not missed a morning round for 50 years at a Buckingham Palace garden party.

In order not to ruin his unbroken run, Martin Court rose at 3.30am and dashed from his delivery in Wales to make his first trip to the capital.

Mr Court, 69, said he entered the trade at 18, has worked every day of the year, bar Christmas, ever since – and has no plans to retire. “I’ve worked for 50 years. I’ve never had a holiday, I’ve never been anywhere,” Mr Court said. “The next thing you know, I had a letter from the Queen inviting me to the garden party. We were absolutely shocked.”

Mr Court drove from Abergavenny with his wife Pauline, 61, to attend the Palace garden party alongside about 8,000 members of the public invited for their service to society. He said he discussed recycling with Charles, who was “very interested” to hear people are returning containers to the milkman after being outraged at plastic waste blighting the oceans.

Also in the crowd was Karen Gibson, the Kingdom Choir conductor praised for her performance at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding. She revealed she chatted with Camilla at the party, who described the wedding performance as “absolutely brilliant”.

“It’s been a bit crazy. Being recognised in the street is really odd,” she said of her post-wedding fame.

“I thought we were singing for Prince Harry and Meghan but it seems like we were singing for everyone.”

Also at the party was Catherine Waters-Clark, chief executive of Inspero which promotes healthy eating through food growing.