How do servants of the British royal family serve members of the royal family?

The real life of British royal attendants: hard-working office workers

Recently, after a polo match, Prince Harry took off his right boot and stepped on the waiter's ass to help him take off the other boot, which became the focus of media attention. British media commented that Prince Harry would be spoiled to lawlessness with such servile attendants around him. As a result, the court life of British royal attendants has attracted people's attention.

The recruitment conditions in the newspaper are very harsh.

It is difficult to promote at different levels.

The British royal family employs a group of new people every year, such as maids, secretaries and housekeeper assistants. In addition, during the summer opening period, Buckingham Palace will recruit more than 200 temporary administrators. To this end, the royal family recruited soldiers in a civilian and modern way, posted job advertisements in national or professional media, and posted job vacancy information on the royal website. Applicants can browse information, download forms and complete applications through the Internet.

The British royal family attaches great importance to the applicant's professional knowledge and professional qualifications, emphasizing equal opportunities. Job seekers will be subject to strict qualifications and background checks, but sometimes mistakes are inevitable.

In September 2003, Ryan Parry, a reporter from the Daily Mirror, easily obtained the position of "royal servant" in Buckingham Palace with a false letter of introduction, and approached the Queen and other members of the royal family several times within two months. After this incident was exposed, the Royal Human Resources and Security Department was under great pressure.

65438, on February 9, 2002, Buckingham Palace posted a notice to urgently hire the Queen's housekeeper. According to the recruitment rules published on the royal website, candidates must be impeccable and need to follow the Queen to different palaces and even go abroad for official or private visits.

In March 2006, Buckingham Palace published an advertisement in a newspaper for a housekeeper's assistant, on the condition that the applicant "works in the Food and Butler Department and is willing to travel to and from various royal families in Britain to undertake various duties, including delivering news, being a valet, or providing dinner and beverage services for members of the royal family". Applicants must also be "self-motivated, trustworthy, eager to learn … and willing to provide the highest level of service". Advertising promises various benefits, bonuses, promotion opportunities and "unique working environment", and allows employees to live in the palace.

If there is no special ability, employees should start from the bottom after being recruited into the palace. British royal attendants are hierarchical, and promotion must follow strict conditions. The lowest footman "No.5" is a handyman who cleans shoes. He can be gradually promoted to "reception attendant" to lead guests, and then to "outer court attendant", and then he can be promoted to the highest position among attendants-"inner court attendant" through hard work. Only this position can directly serve the Queen in the private activity area of Buckingham Palace.

Be forced to do disgraceful work

Let the queen sit down and accept the punishment.

Although the queen has some unique living habits, she is kind-hearted and treats her attendants very kindly. Other members of the royal family are not so easy to serve. It is reported that Prince Charles' attendants should not only ensure that the clothes are washed and ironed neatly, but also put them in the designated position in the wardrobe. On average, the prince changes clothes five times a day. Wherever he went, he asked a senior waiter and two assistants to be on standby 24 hours a day, ready to dress. The British media even pointed out that when Prince Charles brushed his teeth, five waiters were responsible for squeezing toothpaste. There are as many as 85 attendants around him, and the luxury can be compared with that of the French emperor Louis XIV.

In addition to trivial and complicated work, attendants have to complete many absurd "tasks" for their hosts. For example, when Prince Charles went out to have a tryst with Camilla, in order to hide his whereabouts from Princess Diana, he ordered the footman to turn on the TV at home and constantly change the channel, making it look as if the prince had been watching TV all night. At the same time, another servant will lie in his bed for half an hour to make it look as if he had slept in it. Besides, Prince Charles's bad temper is very famous in the palace. He was a little dissatisfied, and he either beat or scolded, so he offended almost all the attendants.

Waiters must work hard, and they will "get more than one bargained for" at the slightest sign of trouble. In 2004, on Christmas Eve, 78-year-old Queen Elizabeth II invited all members of the royal family to have Christmas dinner at Sandelin Palace. Halfway through the meal, the queen stood up and talked to the guest sitting opposite. The footman thought she was going to get food, so he immediately moved the chair aside. I didn't expect the queen to sit back immediately. As a result, she sat empty and fell in front of everyone. Everyone present was shocked, and the footman was even more afraid. Fortunately, the queen just sat on her two pet dogs and was not hurt. The queen sitting on the ground also solved the embarrassment of the scene with a giggle. Later, the footman who fooled the queen made a profound review to the royal supervisor and was "punished accordingly".

The salary is too low to make ends meet.

When the master dies, he has to move away.

For a long time, the British royal family has followed the 39-level salary scale formed in the14th century, and the salary of attendants has been low for a long time. Maids, coachmen, janitors and other junior waiters earn only 9,000 pounds a year (1 pound 14.6 RMB), and many people even have to apply for government subsidies to live. Many employees have to leave the palace and go out to look for higher-paying jobs. 200 1, 1, an entourage of the queen of England tried to commit suicide by taking a lot of painkillers, but the reason was that the salary was too low. After he was saved, he said to his friend, "The salary given to me by the British royal family is simply not enough to make a living. Really not enough to make a living. "

In June of 200 1 year, under the pressure of trade unions, the royal family finally agreed to adjust the treatment of attendants. Among them, the salary of junior waiters is increased by 16%, and the annual salary is increased to 14000; The salary of senior waiters has increased by 5%, but the income generally does not exceed 25 thousand pounds. Compared with the annual income of about 20 thousand pounds per capita in Britain, it is still not high.

The royal family has 285 royal residences, but only a few members of the royal family really live in them, and the rest are used by the attendants given by the Queen. Attendants can live in the palace, but this treatment is linked to their "term of office". Traditionally, after the death of a member of the royal family, the employment contract will stop accordingly, and the attendants will move out of the palace to find another place to live. After Princess Margaret died, her 10 servants received the notice of dismissal and the "expulsion order" and immediately moved out.

Although the salary is not high, the work of royal attendants is still desirable. What really attracts job seekers is the yearning and admiration for the royal family itself, and working here embodies a kind of glory. Paul burrell, Diana's housekeeper, recalled that when he first watched the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace at the age of eight, he made up his mind to work here. 10 years later, burrell really got a job as a royal policeman.

Tailong, the most valued housekeeper of the Empress Dowager, became interested in the royal family from the age of 10 and collected several books about the royal family. After writing to the royal family many times to express his wishes, he finally got his wish at the age of 15 and was recruited into the palace as a housekeeper's assistant. In the following 5 1 year, Tyrone remained faithful to the royal family, serving George VI, Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother successively, and won great trust.

The waiter is exposed and the content should be discounted.

Queen Elizabeth II is recognized as a monarch who attaches great importance to privacy and integrity. No one is allowed to reveal the inside story of the royal family to the media without permission. Therefore, many attendants often keep their mouths shut during their tenure, but after leaving their jobs, they begin to expose information out of jealousy or interest, which makes the royal family members very headache.

1988 at the beginning, a waitress who worked in Le Palace, Queen of Barmor, leaked royal secrets to the French newspaper paris match Pictorial. The maid said that at a dinner party, in order to save a foreign VIP who mistook rose perfume for soup, all members of the royal family would make the mistake of drinking rose perfume from the washbasin. Later, the queen flew into a rage and ordered the spokesman to categorically deny it.

Paul burrell, the former Queen's personal servant and housekeeper of Princess Diana, sold his royal secrets to the British Daily Mirror for 300,000 pounds, and his memoir, Duties of the Royal Family, became a best seller. Burrell revealed that the Queen is a horse racing expert. She reads horse racing classics and horse racing information in the newspaper every day. When the Queen of England is listening to the live horse race, the attendants should keep quiet and report after 3 minutes, regardless of priority. He said that the attendants would put the major British newspapers on the Queen's table every morning, but the top one was the horse racing edition of Sports Life, and the Times was placed at the bottom of a pile of newspapers. As Diana's housekeeper and close friend, burrell revealed that Diana likes to watch romantic movies, especially "tear films" such as Ghost and Gone with the Wind.

Seeing the infinite scenery of Paul burrell, george smith, the royal attendant, also started the idea of "making money with the master's secret". After being fired in 2003, Smith revealed to the media that Charles was bisexual and had sex with his waiter Michelle Fossett. For a time, rumors about the "sex scandal" of royal personnel were flying all over the sky, which made the royal family extremely embarrassed.

1200 The waiter served in person.

At present, the British royal family has about 1200 employees, who are responsible for catering, housekeeping, accounting, secretarial work, art management, media communication and other affairs. Among them, there are 300 attendants who take care of the life of the royal family, such as private secretaries, chefs, maids, footmen, security guards, drivers, gardeners and messengers.

When the Queen of England was alive, there were more than 40 personal attendants who were responsible for every activity in her daily life: waiting for her to get up in the morning, attending celebrations with her during the day and watching the door at night.

When Camilla and Prince Charles visited the United States in June 5438+065438+ 10, 2005, there were as many as 16 people accompanying them, including footmen, clothing guides, hairdressers and makeup guides.