THE KING AND I: ARL COLLEAGUES SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES OF BEING HONOURED BY KING CHARLES III

A s the long Coronation weekend comes to a close, we’re sharing the stories of two ARL colleagues who have had a very close royal encounter with the monarch himself.

Graham Naughton

Before joining ARL as a stakeholder manager, Graham Naughton worked with the British Transport Police (BTP). Graham played an integral role in transforming the way in which the force policed football hooliganism, championing an intelligence-based approach. The success of this led to Graham being named in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

After finding out the news that he had been recognised for his work, Graham said: “BTP has come a long way in dealing with football disorder and the frontline officers undertaking football duties week in and week out can be very proud of that.’”

Prince Charles presented Graham with his MBE at Buckingham Palace on 11^th December 2009 for services to policing.

Tejinder Sharma

Customer Host Tejinder Sharma was also recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017, for his contribution to Hindi literature and community cohesion in the city of London.

Tejinder has more than 40 years of writing experience, with 20 years of writing in India and 23 years of writing after settling in the UK. Drawing on his own experience, Tejinder writes about the life of the immigrant community and their struggles. Tejinder’s works offer a unique perspective as they focus on the issues of his adopted country, but are written in his first language, Hindi.

The event itself certainly was memorable for Tejinder, as he explains: “When I went to collect the award, Prince Charles asked me: ‘What do you write in Hindi, that brings you here?’. I replied to him that I try to build bridges between India and the United Kingdom through my literature. He seemed impressed and told me about his charity, which is very active in India. Our conversation lasted about two and a half minutes, which during an award function feels like an hour.”

Tejinder received his MBE ahead of a young musician. Unaware of who he was, Tejinder asked the musician if he was an instrumental artist or a vocalist. Tejinder’s daughter later explained to him that he was in fact speaking to Ed Sheeran!