Afghanistan veteran ‘TA’ is the Queen’s first black equerry
A GHANAIAN-BORN Army officer will be the Royal household’s first black equerry when he takes up his appointment as an aide to the Queen later this year.
Major Nana Kofi Twumasi-ankrah, of the Blues and Royals, will support the Queen at official engagements such as visits and audiences at Buckingham Palace.
The 38-year-old Afghanistan veteran is known as “TA” to his friends, and moved from Ghana with his parents in 1982. He studied at Queen Mary University of London and then at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was become the first black British Army officer commissioned into the Household Cavalry.
The Queen and other senior royals each have equerries to ensure the smooth running of their engagements.
The Queen’s equerries also greet guests at investitures and her audiences, and the senior equerry is traditionally an officer from one of the Armed Forces, who takes on the role for three years. Maj Twumasi-ankrah acted as the escort commander for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011 and in the same year commanded the Blues and Royals taking part in Trooping the Colour, the Queen’s birthday parade.
The Queen is reported to have personally selected him from several candidates.
His duty of closely attending to the Queen means he is likely to be the most visible man by her side in public appearances after the Duke of Edinburgh announced that he will retire from public duties in the autumn.
Maj Twumasi-ankrah has previously said that as a young child, watching the Queen’s birthday parade on television: “I would have never imagined that one day I’d command the regiment which I’d fallen in love with.”
He added: “From what I’ve seen in the UK, our cultures really do mix and intermingle, and if I’m not a good example of that I really don’t know what is.”
The major lives in London with his wife Joanna Hanna-grindall, who works at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and their two daughters. A former colleague told The Sunday Times that he “would always make the impossible achievable”.