Ceramic poppies on display at the Tower of London. Photo / iStock
They represent the historic face of Britain and are a famous tourist attraction in their own right, Susan Buckland discovers.
When Alan Kingshott stepped off Civvy Street into the Tower of London to become a Yeoman Warder, he knew he was letting himself into a high-profile job. Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress is one of Britain's most popular tourist attractions and its "Beefeater" guardians not only perform ceremonial duties but, as guides for the 2.5 million visitors to the Tower every year, they are tourist attractions in their own right.
"We represent the familiar face of Britain," says Alan, who became a Yeoman Warder in 1998, graduating to Yeoman Gaoler and then to Chief Yeoman Warder in 2012. To become a Yeoman Warder requires at least 22 years of military service and recruits must be former senior non-commissioned officers. Alan was fit for purpose. He had joined the British Army in his teens and retired 23 years later as a Sergeant Major with a good conduct medal.
"I hadn't had a job outside the Army so found the transition to manager of an electrical store quite traumatic," he laughs. Several years later, Alan found himself in more familiar territory, discarding suit and tie for the braided Beefeater uniform.
During its long and often grisly history, the Tower has variously served as an armoury, treasury, menagerie, Royal Mint, prison, public records office and home of the glittering Crown Jewels of England.
The Yeoman Warders were established in 1485 by the Tudor monarch King Henry VII and are the oldest royal bodyguard in Britain. Today their winning combination of genial tour guide and military training works a treat with the never-ending stream of visitors. Alan and his team's skills were in extra demand last year when five million people flocked to the Tower, drawn by the remarkable WWI anniversary commemoration of 888,246 ceramic poppies planted in its moat, each representing one British or colonial life lost.
The Chief Yeoman Warder's working day begins at 8am when Alan descends the spiral staircase from the 13th-century house where he lives with his wife Patricia, a senior warden in the Tower's jewel house. "It takes me 30 seconds to descend the 48 steps and six days to get up. It pays not to forget anything," laughs the fit-looking 62-year-old.
After calling into the Yeoman Gaoler's office he goes to the Yeoman Warders' hall to check duty rosters and thence to his office where computer technology has lightened the load of the ancient institution. His day doesn't end until he closes the Tower at the Ceremony of the Keys at 10pm, a ritual which has taken place over the same ground in war and peace since the 14th Century. The only time when the ceremony paused was during a WWII air raid.
Incendiary bombs fell on the Victorian guardroom as the Chief Yeoman Warder and escort were coming through the Bloody Tower arch. The shock of the bombs momentarily stalled them before they dusted themselves down and carried on.
Up to 80 members of the public can observe the famous Ceremony of the Keys, but Alan advises people to reserve early. Most nights get booked out.
Resplendent in their red and gold uniforms, the Yeoman Warders also attend state occasions such as coronations and the Lord Mayor of London's annual procession. And before the State Opening of Parliament, they go to the Palace of Westminster to search the cellars.
The tradition dates back to Guy Fawkes' attempt in 1605 to blow up Parliament. Their main role, however, is to guard the Tower of London's 7ha site and the dazzling Crown Jewels.
"Our ravens get plenty of attention, too," says Alan, referring to the Tower's most famous non-human residents. Legend has it that the monarchy would fall if the Tower's ravens were to fly away so they have their wings clipped. (According to legend, Hitler had the ravens on his hit list.)
The Tower's beady-eyed inhabitants peck at lawns within the Tower grounds and perch in trees where there would be a bird's eye view of the sky-scraping City of London. The Tower ravens can live to a decent age, according to Alan. James Crow lived to at least 40 and Ronald Raven had a good innings, too, thanks to the raven master who cares for his sleek black charges.
Views from inside the Tower walls set the imagination spinning with names of famous and infamous prisoners. Josef Jacobs, a German spy, was the last person to be executed at the Tower in 1941. In the Bell Tower, 400 years earlier, Thomas More was imprisoned before being beheaded at Tower Hill.
The last prisoners to spend a brief time within the 1000-year-old Tower of London were the notorious East End gangsters, Reggie and Ronnie Kray. Adding draft dodging to their list of crimes, they failed to report for national service with the royal Fusiliers London Regiment.
For Alan Kingshott, the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula always stirs the emotions. Beneath the stone floor lie the bones of Anne Boleyn who was beheaded within the Tower, and those of Katherine Howard, the other of Henry VIII's wives to lose her head.
Forty Yeoman Warder families live within the castle walls. They have a resident doctor and a pub where novices are welcomed with Beefeater gin.
In 2007 the first female Yeoman Warder broke the stolidly male ranks. Moira Cameron joined after a 22-year career in the British Army and last year was the smiling face of an advertisement to recruit Yeoman Warders. Potential applicants for the 30,000-a-year warder positions need to be "excellent communicators with an inherent sense of fun reflecting modern Britain".
"Applications are open to Commonwealth citizens and until five years ago we had a New Zealander, Patrick Nolan, serving as a Yeoman," says Alan. Patrick was the first non-British serviceman to become a Beefeater and spent 16 years working at the Tower of London.
"It's a privilege to be in this role and to belong to a 530-year-old bodyguard," says Chief Yeoman Warder Alan as he obligingly faces the camera for yet another photo.
"I am a people person and am very proud to be a symbol of English history."
ROAD CHECK
The drive: London to Lands End, Cornwall, the westernmost point of mainland England.
Distance: You'll go 511km each way, mostly driving on the M4.
Drive time: There's about 5hr 15min of driving each way. When you're planning your roadie around here, be aware that many of the roads you'll be on while exploring the most beautiful parts of Cornwall are small and windy, so the drive can be deceptively tiring.
Ideal soundtrack: PJ Harvey is from Dorset, which isn't quite part of the West Country, but she has some cracking tunes. In Cornwall, flick on a bit of Tori Amos, she lives in Bude. Fancy making music the centrepiece of your drive? Go to the annual Eden Sessions festival at the Eden Project, for an array of top-flight musicians.
Iconic car: You're in Blighty so get yourself a Mini or a Jag (in British racing green), depending on your budget.
The maddest thing you'll see: The Minack Theatre, at Porthcurno, is a masterpiece of fake Grecian ruins amid dramatic coastal views.
Best photo: Even to biased Kiwi eyes, the Cornish coastline rivals the best of New Zealand's scenery. Get snapping.
Can we get a pie? You can do better than that. Cornwall and Devonshire pretty much invented the art of putting jam and clotted cream on a scone and enjoying it with a cuppa. As the pavlova is to the Tasman Sea, the two counties both claim to be the true home of cream tea.
We still want a pie. Then stop at the Jamaica Inn, in the middle of Bodmin Moor, a haunted public house that was the subject of Daphne du Maurier's 1936 gothic novel (later made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock). It's a cracking spot for a pint and a bite and recently featured in Herald Travel's Bar/fly series.
Something fishy: Cornwall is seafood county and you'll get much of England's best piscine produce around here. When you're looping back to London along Cornwall's north coast, make a point of stopping in at Padstow - known as Pad-Stein - where Rick Stein has three seafood restaurants, catering to different budgets. Money to burn? Head for Stein's flagship joint, The Seafood Restaurant. On a budget? Stein's Fish & Chips has the best F&Cs the Herald's Travel Editor has ever tasted.
Cinematic: Bits of Die Another Day - the last of Pierce Brosnan's Bond films, directed by Kiwi Lee Tamahori - were filmed at the Eden Project.
Safety warning: Go easy on the cider and watch those windy roads.
CHECKLIST
Getting there: Air New Zealand flies daily to London from Auckland via Los Angeles.
Europe’s cemeteries are rich in history, art and atmosphere.