What Uncle Alfred did next

Yesterday’s blip featured my Great Uncle Alfred who served as a bodyguard to Edward Prince of Wales. In 1923 he accompanied the Prince when he visited Canada, lightly disguised as Lord Renfrew.

I have found records of two more North American trips on which Great Uncle Alfred accompanied the Prince, in 1924 and 1927. The Prince evidently travelled with a considerable entourage. In 1924 the Passenger List included his comptroller general, Brigadier General Gerald Trotter, his private secretary, Tommy Lascelles (probably best known to us from The Crown), an assistant private secretary, a clerk, three valets and two police officers, one of whom was Great Uncle Alfred.

I would love to know how Great Uncle Alfred got the job of bodyguard. You would think it would take the right connections, and I’m sure my family didn’t have those. In 1901, when he was fourteen, Great Uncle Alfred was working as a plumber’s mate. In 1908 he joined the Metropolitan Police and in 1921 he was a Police Inspector at Cannon Row Police Station. How did he get from there to sailing first class to New York with the Prince and his glamorous friends?

I would also love to know what he did after 1927. Sadly, Great Uncle Alfred died in 1933, aged only 46, so he didn’t see the dramatic events of 1936 when the Prince became King and then abdicated. He spent his last days in the Police Seaside Convalescent Home in Hove. He was still a policeman, but I can find no recognition of his years in the royal entourage. His grave in Epsom cemetery is in poor repair and held together with tape (extra).

There is a footnote though. I believe that his son, Edward Alfred, also worked for a Royal Personage. More research will be needed.