Surprise chat with Prince William
Thatcham eight-year-old shakes hands with royalty
AN eight-year-boy from Thatcham had the “unexpected” pleasure of chatting to Prince William on Saturday.
Samuel Ghulam and his father Leon Ghulam had a brief interaction with royalty when queuing to see the Queen lying in state at the weekend.
The pair caught a glimpse of the new monarch King Charles who paid a surprise visit at around noon with the Prince of Wales.
The father and son, who waited in the queue for a total of 17 hours, enjoyed a chat with Prince William at Lambeth Bridge.
“It was just a bit unexpected,” said Samuel.
“My daddy heard someone whispering to somebody else to take their hoodie off because the King was coming in 10 minutes.
“We waited for 10 minutes, then 10 more and then another 10 minutes, then two hours later he finally arrived. The King came to the first row.”
When Prince William shortly followed, he stopped to ask Samuel about his day after joking about the King working through the crowd faster than him.
“He shook hands with me and my Daddy,” he said.
“He asked me how old I was, what my name was, where I had come from and how long I had been waiting.
“I told him it had been 13-and-a-half hours and he said well done and told me there was not long left to go.”
The St Finian’s pupil has since told his class about his once-in-a-lifetime moment in show and tell.
“My teacher actually saw me on the TV and sent us a video,” he laughed.
“My favourite part would be seeing the Queen, it is just for maybe 30 seconds, but it is still good what we have done.”
Samuel’s father echoed his son’s response and said: “As Samuel said, we were there for about 20 or 30 seconds, but you knew you were in the presence of something great.
“The mood in the queue was great and you hear that people made lifelong friends, but as soon as you entered, you felt the sense of occasion.
“The feeling was palpable. Nobody had to tell people not to talk.
“For me personally, it was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to go and pay our respects to the Queen.
“She has been such a constant in all our lives
“She maintained that sense of service to her country throughout her life.”