Nic Careem regales the room with stories about the royal family

LONG-TERM Camden resident Nic Careem said he had taken Baroness Doreen Lawrence to meet royalty as he spoke in front of councillors last night (Monday) – and the then Prince Charles later agreed to do the first Stephen Lawrence lecture.

The Conservative party campaigner was speaking as Camden Council held a special all-member meeting last night (Monday) in which councillors, aldermen, members of the public and Town Hall staff paid tribute to the Queen.

Here is what Mr Careem said:

“My name is Nic Careem and I want to briefly talk a little bit about the Careems’ first encounter with a royal and that took place in 1954 when my mother, who was the same age as the Queen, saw the Queen as her cortege went by in her home city of Colombo.

And she had a dream from that moment onwards that she wanted to meet the Queen.

So in 1957, after my father died, she took the four of us and moved to Camden and bought a house in Chalk Farm in 1958.

Then my encounter with a royal took place when I was a little boy at Rhyl Street Primary School. I was in the team to do the 100 yards, as it was then. Guess what? The red helicopter landed in the sports field and it was his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

And I remember even as a small boy how impressed I was with this man. I know that my dear friend Flick [Camden alderman Flick Rea] has said how attractive he was – even to me, as a little boy of eight. I thought ‘wow, what an attractive guy’.

Anyway, my mum’s dream of meeting the Queen happened in 1975, when as a trustee of a charity she was invited to Buckingham Palace on two occasions and she was delighted.

Although she wasn’t able to speak to the Queen, she was in the vicinity of the Queen. I think people were selected: who can speak to the Queen or not.

But my personal encounter with the Queen came in 2000 at the retirement party Emeka Anyaoku, the Secretary General of the Commonwealth who I had befriended a year earlier.

I did an event with him, so he asked me to bring Doreen Lawrence, Stephen Lawrence’s mother who I was friends with.

So I brought Doreen along. We were all lined up, and the Duke was there, Kofi Annan was there, and of course, Her Majesty.

They all came along and the Queen obviously didn’t recognise straightaway who Doreen Lawrence was and she said: ‘Excuse me, do you work here?’

And then King Charles came along and said the same thing: ‘Do you work here?’

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had to explain to Doreen of course, the Queen and King Charles meet so many people, so obviously you forgive them.

Six months later, Prince Charles agreed to come and do the first Stephen Lawrence inaugural lecture. So the royal household did note that.

But the following day, I had to see Prince Charles again at the British Army event which I was a guest at the reception.

I was quite moved and humoured by the fact that he recognised me from the night before and he came over to me and he says ‘oh my God, it’s you again – twice in 24 hours, people will start to talk’.

I have been a big fan. I’m a monarchist. I’m not necessarily a royalist, but I am a monarchist. And I think the Queen’s done an extraordinary job and I have to say, I did shed a tear or two when I heard that she had died.

And all I can say now is God save the King.”