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Prince William and Prince Harry’s old royal protection officer Graham Craker has passed away. He was 77 years old and long retired from royal protection. I saw the headlines and I thought… well, that’s sad, but why are they making such a big deal about the death of a retired royal bodyguard? As it turns out, Prince Harry mentioned Craker in Spare, and Craker also gave a few interviews about what it was like at Balmoral following Princess Diana’s death in 1997.

Prince William and Prince Harry’s beloved former bodyguard, Graham “Crackers” Craker, has reportedly died. He was 77. Craker was the boys’ bodyguard when their mother, Princess Diana, died at age 36 in August 1997, outlets including The Telegraph and Sky News recalled while reporting on his death. The Sun was the first to report the news.

William and Harry were ages 15 and 12 when their mother died in a car crash in Paris, and the Duke of Sussex recalled Craker supporting them in his January 2023 memoir, Spare. The former bodyguard — who retired in 2001 after 35 years in the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police and 15 years serving as a bodyguard for the royal family — walked with the boys behind Diana’s hearse as it made its way from St James’s Palace to Westminster Abbey for the Sept. 6, 1997 funeral, The Telegraph reported.

Craker also sat in the front of the hearse that carried Princess Diana’s body to Althorp House, where she is buried, with William, Harry, and their father, then-Prince Charles, being pictured among those bowing their heads as the car drove past them.

Harry wrote in Spare, “The driver had to keep pulling over so the bodyguard could get out and clear the flowers off the windscreen,” per The Telegraph. “The bodyguard was Graham. Willy and I liked him a lot. We always called him Crackers. We thought that was hysterical,” he added.

Craker previously spoke to the New York Post in 2017 about taking part in the documentary Diana: 7 Days That Shook the Windsors that was released that year. He told the outlet that Diana’s death was, “Difficult to take in. It takes a while to absorb and then you feel the need to make sure what you’re hearing is true — and that didn’t take long to establish. From there on, it’s the policeman’s instinct to assess the situation and carry on.”

Craker was with the royal family in Scotland when the late princess died, telling the outlet he wasn’t really able to comfort William and Harry. “That was obviously the duty of the parents, family and everybody else they thought could help. When we did meet, it was quite a somber atmosphere,” he said.

“Perhaps the most emotional [part of the week following Diana’s death] was seeing William the morning after [the car crash]. 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.’ Not wishing to encroach upon his grief, I then walked on and William continued walking his dog,” the New York Post reported.

Craker also told the outlet about traveling in the hearse with Diana’s coffin. “I was standing at the rear of the hearse and William looked up and acknowledged me. I looked toward him and nodded. William was comforted that I was with his mum on her final journey,” he said.

[From People]

It’s sad. There are a lot of people with institutional memory who are no longer with us. I always found the bodyguards’ narratives of that summer the most interesting. There were Fayed-family bodyguards looking after Diana that summer too, and they’ve all told their stories over the years, about how Diana was being monitored by British intelligence, how weird the vibe was in the South of France and Paris, etc. Anyway, I’d be willing to bet that someone will say “Prince Harry must fly home for Graham Craker’s funeral.” That’s the next thing, the next reason why Harry “must come back.”

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.