From left to right: Ian Hulton and stateroom attendant Ged Power atop Buckingham Palace in 1975. Photo / Supplied
From left to right: Ian Hulton and stateroom attendant Ged Power atop Buckingham Palace in 1975. Photo / Supplied
Ian Hulton still considers himself lucky he got to spend his OE working for the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
The 72-year-old Rotorua man spoke to the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend about his "wonderful experience" and paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II after her death.
Hulton applied for a job at the palace advertised in the Daily Mail newspaper when he moved to the United Kingdom in 1975 after university. He was 25 at the time.
He was not given the footman role he initially interviewed for but was employed as a household porter.
He said it was a "general dogsbody" role that included "just about anything".
Some of the jobs were setting up and working at formal functions, cleaning, moving furniture and also carrying out daily security checks through all the staterooms.
"We pretty much could go anywhere in the palace if our job needed us to go there - including the Queen's apartments. We did everything."
Reflecting on the job, Hulton said "you got a feeling for how busy her day to day life would have been".
She was extremely hard working in a "pretty much 24/7 sort of role"," he said.
There were an "awful lot" of official engagements and she received a red box stacked with documents to sign from Parliament daily, he said.
Hulton described his time working at the palace as a "wonderful experience" and was very much aware it was a rare opportunity.
"I just feel so privileged I had that time there. Not many people get to have that experience."
He had been raised a royalist with both of his parents being "strong supporters and admirers" of the Queen.
Working for the royal family "reinforced my views about the monarchy and the role it plays in British commonwealth society," he said.
He only crossed paths with her three times in the year he was at the palace - but he remembers each interaction fondly.
In the first instance, the Queen was in the storeroom deciding what paintings she would like hanging. It was his job to "pull them out for her to have a look at," he said.
Another time he crossed paths with her in the corridor, greeting her with an "afternoon ma'am" and carrying on with his day.
Then at Christmas, all the palace staff were invited to meet the Queen and Prince Philip. That year they were all gifted a voucher for a local store and a Christmas pudding.
"The Christmas pudding I brought home and gave to my parents," he said.
Ian Hulton visited Buckingham Palace again in 2018 for a royal garden party. Photo / Supplied
Hulton said he was saddened to hear of the Queen's death and said his thoughts were with King Charles who had "lost two parents in 18 months".
"It doesn't matter who you are, or how old you are ... when you lose both of your parents it changes you. We sort of don't think of the royal family in those sorts of ways - but they are still not above those feelings I am sure."
Four years ago the Rotorua man, who retired in 2013, was lucky enough to attend a garden party at the palace as a guest alongside his wife Carol.
He said it was "quite a special experience" that brought back memories from his days working at the palace.
