Historian Dame Mary offers her services as royal tutor

PROFESSOR MARY Beard said she offered to become the personal Latin tutor to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children as the historian collected her damehood from Buckingham Palace.

The broadcaster, well-known for her documentaries and appearances on the BBC, said she would do “anything” to ensure Princes George and Louis, and Princess Charlotte, grew up with an understanding of the ancient Roman language.

Speaking moments after she received the honour for services to the study of classical civilisation from Prince William at Buckingham Palace, Dame Mary said: “Well, I hope he was listening. Of course he was very polite and said: ‘I’ll have to get you to teach them’, and I said: ‘Anything!’”

She joked: “I didn’t quite say: ‘You get the little squits to learn Latin...’ but I did say you get them to learn because it is very important. It’s important to learn where we’ve been and where we’ve come from, and for people to have access to some of the most extraordinary and influential literature in world culture.

“That kind of direct connection with something so influential written so long ago is, I think, terribly important.”

Dame Mary was at the palace five years on from receiving her OBE for services to classical scholarship.

The Cambridge University professor previously said she had “a “touch of republican” about her, but felt much more comfortable accepting the honour now she was “older and wiser”.

The academic married art historian Robin Cormack in 1985. They have a daughter, Zoe and son, Raphael.

She was joined at the palace by engineer Roma Agrawal, who worked on the Shard landmark building in London, and milliner Rose Cory, who was appointed to the Queen Mother. Both received MBEs during the ceremony.