Queen’s support for hounded hero
Pride of place for Lord Bramall after probe hell
THE Queen showed ‘extraordinary’ support for Lord Bramall while he was being hounded over false child abuse claims, the Daily Mail can reveal. The monarch made a point of ‘warmly’ welcoming the former Army chief to a lunch at Windsor Castle at the height of the doomed investigation.
He attended the annual Order of the Garter event only weeks after he and his dying wife were subjected to a dawn raid by 20 police and questioned over the spurious allegations.
Lord Bramall – formally cleared over the claims last week – will also be welcomed at this year’s event, one of the most prestigious in the royal calendar.
‘Subtle ways she can express her feelings’
It is understood the Queen may even offer the 92-year-old a place at her side as a public sign of support for the D-Day veteran she has known for more than four decades.
A source with close ties to the event disclosed last night: ‘Interestingly, she was planning to do so whether or not the war hero had been cleared by that time.
‘The Queen can’t overtly support him but there are more subtle ways she can express her feeling son the issue. Seating him next to her is a significant way of doing that.’
The disclosure will heap more pressure on Metropolitan Police boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe to offer a formal public apology to Lord Bramall after Scotland Yard’s bungled tenmonth probe into the baseless claims by a suspected serial fantasist known only as Nick.
The inquiry – part of Operation Midland, Scotland Yard’s historic VIP sex abuse unit – began in March but the peer, Britain’s most decorated living soldier, was only told by letter last week it was being dropped because of‘ insufficient evidence’.
Lord Bramall’s wife of 66 years died last July never knowing he had been cleared.
A close friend of Lord Bramall said last night: ‘In terms of the Royal Family, it was never their view that there was any substance to the allegations.
‘He was never isolated by the Royal Family and that means a lot to him.’
One of Lord Bramall’s fellow Knights of the Garter said the peer would attend this year, health permitting. The unnamed source said the Queen thinks ‘very carefully’ about the seating plan, adding: ‘What I can tell you is that if Lord Bramall is sitting next to her it won’t be an accident.’
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on a ‘private lunch’. A royal source added a seating plan would not be considered until nearer the June event, a date for which has not yet been fixed.
IN warmly welcoming Lord Bramall to Windsor Castle while he was under groundless suspicion of child abuse, the Queen showed laudable respect for the presumption of innocence and the honour due to a war hero.
What a lesson in decency to the police who treated him so shabbily, declaring his fantasist accuser ‘credible and true’, launching a mob-handed raid on his house – and even now refusing to apologise.