A former body guard to Princes William and Harry, who was with them when Princess Diana was killed, has died at 77.
Graham Craker also accompanied the brothers as they walked behind their mother’s hearse as it made its way from St James’s Palace to Westminster Abbey for her funeral.
Afterwards, he sat in the front of the hearse as Diana was taken to her final resting place at Althorp House.
He was also seen clearing flowers from the windscreen that had been thrown onto the vehicle by the public.
Harry said in his memoir Spare he was very fond of Mr Craker, who was a guest at William and Kate’s wedding in 2011.
He wrote: ‘The driver had to keep pulling over so the bodyguard could get out and clear the flowers off the windscreen.
‘The bodyguard was Graham. Willy and I liked him a lot. We always called him Crackers. We thought that was hysterical.’
(Picture: AFP)
Mr Craker served 35 years in the Met Police, with 15 of those spent as bodyguard for the royal family. He retired in 2001.
In later years he volunteered for charities in Ware, Hertfordshire.
He gave an interview after retiring, where he spoke of the day Diana died in 1997.
He said: ‘I crept down the stairs to the house phone and dialled the duty office at Buckingham Palace.
‘They said there were reports there’d been an accident and Dodi Fayed had been killed and the Princess had a broken arm.’
On learning Diana had died, he recalled: ‘It was disbelief, really, and obviously a great deal of sorrow.
‘You try and deal with it as best you can but you do get quite emotional about it.
‘Perhaps the most emotional was seeing William the morning after.
‘I saw William walking his dog outside, and I walked up to him and said, ‘I’m very, very sorry to hear your bad news’. William very sadly said, ‘Thank you’.’
‘William was comforted I was with his mum on her final journey.’
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