One way to have a perfect view of the Wedding of the Decade? Escort the Queen.
That's how Major-General Jonathan Hall – Elizabeth II's bodyguard (or technically, "Her Majesty's Body Guard of Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms") – earned his entry into Westminster Abbey on April 29.
As the major-general told the Dorset Echo: "We do all the royal occasions, and so we are lucky enough and privileged enough to be involved with the Royal wedding."
As expected, dress code is strict. As he strides ahead of both his current and future queens, the officer will don the traditional uniform of a skirted red coat, a helmet adorned with white swan plumage and a centuries-old ceremonial battleaxe.
Hall has achieved this honor by serving in the Royal Army, which included stints in Asia, Germany and Northern Ireland. Though he can't attend the Buckingham Palace reception and "will probably be in a back aisle and … will have to stand the whole time," Hall is not complaining. "I am very lucky to be able to witness such a happy and wonderful occasion," he says.
Both Kate Middleton and Prince William have come clean about their pre-wedding nerves. So, how is Hall holding up? "I don't get nervous," he says, coolly, of attending official events. "I get a thrill every time I do it."
Meet Queen Elizabeth's Royal Wedding Guard
Queen Elizabeth
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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