Here are some photos of the Duchess of Edinburgh in Surrey on Friday. She did an event with her patronage, Girlguiding, and it was all about encouraging girls and young women to enter into STEM fields. Meanwhile, there’s some interesting news about a horrible situation from 2023. Just after King Charles’s coronation, Sophie was traveling in a multi-vehicle police motorcade, and the royal protection officers were apparently speeding and being reckless. One of the speeding police cars struck an 81-year-old woman named Helen Holland. Holland was hospitalized and in a coma for two weeks, and then she passed away. While the Holland family was outraged by what happened, they made a point of saying that they didn’t blame Sophie. It did make people wonder why Sophie needs a multi-car motorcade to simply go to a garden party or whatever. Well, in any case, a police officer has been charged in Holland’s death.
A Metropolitan Police officer has been charged over the death of a woman who was hit by a motorcycle escorting the Duchess of Edinburgh through London. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had authorised a charge of causing death by careless driving against 67-year-old Christopher Harrison.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 6 November.
Helen Holland, 81, suffered serious injuries in the collision in Earl’s Court on 10 May. She died in hospital two weeks later.
In a statement released at the time, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, said her “heartfelt thoughts and prayers” were with Ms Holland and her family. Ms Holland, a mother-of-four who was also a grandmother-of-10 and great grandmother-of-seven, was struck at the junction of West Cromwell Road and Warwick Road. The CPS said the charge against Harrison was authorised following a review of the evidence by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
From the descriptions of the road and the circumstances, the accident made no sense unless the police driver made zero attempt to slow down or show caution in a pedestrian-heavy area. So, I can understand why Christopher Harrison is being charged with a crime. I wonder if they did a larger investigation into why Sophie needs that many RPOs and why they believed they needed to speed in the middle of the day, carrying out non-urgent business.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Duchess of Edinburgh, patron of GirlGuiding, joins Guides during a visit to the Brooklands Motor Museum in Surrey, for planned contact with the International Space Station, to promote the engagement and involvement of girls and young women in STEM Featuring: Sophie, Duchess Of Edinburgh Where: Surrey, United Kingdom When: 05 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Edinburgh, patron of GirlGuiding, joins Guides during a visit to the Brooklands Motor Museum in Surrey, for planned contact with the International Space Station, to promote the engagement and involvement of girls and young women in STEM Featuring: Sophie, Duchess Of Edinburgh Where: Surrey, United Kingdom When: 05 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Edinburgh, patron of GirlGuiding, joins Guides during a visit to the Brooklands Motor Museum in Surrey, for planned contact with the International Space Station, to promote the engagement and involvement of girls and young women in STEM Featuring: Sophie, Duchess Of Edinburgh Where: Surrey, United Kingdom When: 05 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Do we know if Sophie was even working when she had that level of police protection?
The fact that anyone can think her risk level is higher than Harry and Meghan’s (ie that RAVEC assessed objectively) is crazy
Well, given that they are doing more work on behalf of the King I expect that their security has been upgraded to match the new workload they have – we can’t expect the Wails to do more than they already do.
I believe she was not. That being said: working royals, or royals higher up the hierarchy, do have 24/7 protection. I just don’t see why she needed a motorcade. Harry didn’t travel with one outside of royal duties.
According to the Court Circular her sole engagement was an early evening thing in Windsor. No official reason for her having to speed through London around lunchtime.
I never believed Sophie was in the convoy and I am a rational person who is not a conspiracy theorist.
This police officer should face the court but Sophie being there, the speed they were travelling at and the full detail of officers. Nope.
I still think Sophie was used as a cover for Another Royal coming from Windsor. Someone higher up on the food chain. Heir, perhaps?
I’m glad that Helen Holland’s family has gotten justice for her death from the Metropolitan police, and I hope it helps them a bit. A preventable accident is a terrible way to lose your grand/mother! The fact that Sophie has this huge, fast moving entourage still hasn’t been addressed? Nor has the fact that her garden party was not listed as work so no one knew what was going on last year.
Last question: why is a 67-year-old speeding on a motorcycle for the police? I can’t imagine that this guy has perfect hearing, eyesight or reflexes.
Seriously, once we got to his age…there is absolutely no excuse for a 67 year old to be part of a security motorcade, never mind the motorcycle. It’s outrageous!
Oh boy. Lots of ageism here. I was still employed full time at 67. My eyesight, hearing and reflexes were just fine. I could work rings around those much younger. I was well paid for my leadership, decisions and experience. I travelled, rented cars and navigated solo through large cities without GPS. Never had an accident.
This guy’s job is seeing to the safety of a royal in a way that keeps the public safe. Clearly, this 67-year-old was not fit for the job, since he mowed down an elderly woman he was unable to avoid. Motorcycles are much easier to stop (less braking distance) and also more agile in traffic, than say, a car. I think it’s absolutely fair to assess this man’s hearing, eyesight and reflexes, especially since he caused a deadly accident!
67 is usually retirement age, and there is no shame nor ageism in pointing out that if this gentleman is less fit than he should be for his job, than he should never have been there.
Agreed. Obviously I don’t have all the facts of this case, but immediately saying that he shouldn’t be driving is ageist. I am a hospice social worker and one of our best nurses is 66. He goes on days long hikes through the mountains on his spare time and might be in better shape than I am at 41. Could someone have eyesight and reflex issues at 67? Absolutely! I see people all the time in their 60s that shouldn’t be driving. However, saying that no one that age can be a part of a security motorcade is shortsighted and ageist. Jimmy Carter and his spouse were helping build houses into their 90s.
I turn 50 this year and no longer drive at night because all the city lights really mess up my vision. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with facing facts, and a 67 year old as part of a high speed protection motorcade needed to face facts before this woman was killed.
Does an attitude of entitlement spread to RPOs?
Yeah, good question! It’s possible that the attitude of entitlement could rub off on anyone, especially anyone “protecting” a royal, who are the definition of entitled!
I often see motorcades (with police outriders) when I’m in central London (not just for royals) and yeah they do go along at high speeds – this isn’t the first time one of the royal motorcades has hit a pedestrian (the Wails hit someone while they were speeding down to an event at Windsor that they were already late to).
I don’t know the details of what happened but if he’s being charged it means that they’ve found he was driving recklessly. These guys are trained to drive that way (I mean in these types of motorcades not to drive recklessly).
My low stakes conspiracy theory is that it was actually William’s motorcade, but they obviously didn’t want that public so Sophie went under the bus and that’s why she got to do an event with him shortly after this happened.
Yeah, she did an event with him right after this incident. The palace was used to throwing Harry under the bus to protect Will. I also believe, this was Will’s motorcade and since Harry was no longer there, they threw a married-in under the bus to protect the heir and promised her the protection from the media. There was no negative narrative in the media about Sophie for this incident.
I wouldn’t find it hard to believe it was someone else’s motorcade.
It was not. I’m no fan of his, but this has happened with him and Kate before, and it was reported in the news. This was Sophie’s motorcade.
Because it’s happened before is one of the reasons I think they wouldn’t want to show it happening again.
Again, low stakes conspiracy, not spending much time on it, but it was a weird story and coverage at the time, enough to make you wonder.
@Proud Mary, but was it before Kate & Will got sainted by the british media? There were negative articles written about K&W before Meghan. After Meghan and the invisible agreement between palace & media, everything changed. The palace is more protective about the rep of K&W now. Otherwise, why did Will show obvious support to Sophie right after the accident? He wouldn’t do things like that if he wasn’t getting something in return.
It’s probably also why Edward finally became Duke of Edinburgh: wasn’t Sophie still a countess at the time? Leverage?
Just goes to show how much the stenographers in the royal rota lie. They swore that Edward and Sophie only had protection officers when they were on official duty, which this clearly was not – whoever it was.
What if it wasn’t Sophie but one of William’s “special friends”?
This. Sophie got compensation for being the face of this situation.
They were given the Dukedom two months before this crash.
You could well be right. And I think William is the royal racist too, but they had to protect the heir by pinning it on Kate.
I agree that I think it was actually Will’s motorcade and they used Sophie to coverup him being there and then compensated her and Edward with a new title and Sophie with a special and never done before solo engagement with William. I also think that William was one of the royal racists that had conversations with Harry, but I still believe that Kate was one of them. Her actions and treatment of Meghan even while she was pregnant with Archie couldn’t have been done by someone who is okay with the potential harm to an unborn child unless they didn’t see the child as worthy of care and support from abuse. Only a racists would be so callous about the life of an unborn biracial child.
Yeah I think this is what happened. Sophie willingly went under the bus and it was somewhat minimized. If it had really been her KC and/or William would have fueled the distracting flame.
I dont know if it was William’s motorcade or not. but I think there is something fishy here – even if it was just Sophie’s motorcade, why does her motorcade need to speed through central London in such a manner? Why does she have a motorcade when she’s not going to an official engagement?
the line years ago was that Sophie and Edward only got protection when they were doing official events – I remember reading a story years ago about how happy this made Sophie because she could just do the school run in her Jaguar (yes the car was mentioned lol) without any RPOs trailing her and she liked that.
But I think its clear that either that changed at some point or that was just the talking point put out to the media and it never actually changed, because by the time Andrew gave his interview in 2019 and there was such a big deal made about losing RPOs and then QEII reinstating the RPOs etc but…..if he’s not doing official events then he wouldn’t have protection under what we were previously told.
So this makes clear that not only does Sophie have protection 24/7, she also uses motorcades to get where she wants to go regardless of official reasons.
Do I think this could have been William’s motorcade? Maybe. but I think its just as likely that it was Sophie’s and there was some panic at the palace that it would come out how much these people use motorcades to run errands etc.
Of course the press is going to protect them though so no reason for panic.
At 67, he shouldn’t still be a motorcycle escort. And as I remember Sophie wasn’t on royal duty so why was her motorcade traveling at high speed? Plus there’s no way she should have the same level of security as the more senior royals.
Why does Sophie need a motorcade
“It did make people wonder why Sophie needs a multi-car motorcade to simply go to a garden party or whatever.” Yeah, why? You know they would be accusing Meghan of murder if this was her motorcade.
Why would a 67 year old be driving in a motorcade? That in and of itself is bizarre. Something else is going on here. Charles and Willy are cheap and greedy. They wouldn’t pay for the best of the best protection for a married in, no matter how many events she does and how throughly she kisses their entitled asses. This sounds like Sophie is getting thrown to the wolves to cover for Keen/Camilla/Will-not or Charles. If a fix wasn’t on somehow Sophie woulf be fed to the wolves over this.
The question should be will Sophie be required to testify in court as a eye witness? I can’t believe they didn’t get a witness statement from her. The outrider was wrong and has to answer for it; but he is a convenient sacrificial lamb.
Kind of ironic how Charles makes a point of refusing police protection for the Sussexes when they are in the UK but others like Sophie get multi-vehicles police motorcade to go to garden parties and other stupid events that are not work.
Yeah, good question! It’s possible that the attitude of entitlement could rub off on anyone, especially anyone “protecting” a royal, who are the definition of entitled!
The entire motorcade logistics need to be reexamined.
The motorcycle drivers are required to drive while constantly looking back at the car containing the principle to make sure it is safe.
Driving while looking backwards is NOT SAFE
If i were that driver I would put the blame where it belongs on the police motorcade procedures.
To think that so soon after the death of a family member, the 81-year-old woman’s relatives were so anxious to spare a thought for poor, poor Sophie who, after all, was the real victim here. The deceased’s family members released a statement saying that they did not blame Sophie, as if a statement was actually necessary, as if the BM was ganging up on Sophie. There was never any danger of that. So, to those who really believe that someday England will abolish the monarchy, to me, the lesson in this episode is that some people just like to bow at others — and pay taxes to support them.
Were they anxious or were they compelled to issue that statement the way the Sista Space owner was compelled to pose with Cam after she was suitably terrorised by threats, audits and whatever else? Or H having had the pleasure of hearing on the radio he signed a document stating that William hadn’t bullied him and M when he did no such thing and William forged His participation?
Did Sarah Everard’s family want to acknowledge Kate’s letter to them publicly? Probably not but bossy boots who managed to get the Duchess of Sussex stitched up by the police for attending the vigil in the records when it should have been her got what she wanted.
Even Sophie may have been able to make lemonade and force the title QEII & Philip specifically said they wanted Edward to have that CIII wasn’t lifting a finger to give his own brother by taking the public ‘blame’. You can see how the BRF rolls, that family may have had little choice but to cooperate.
I say again Down with The Monarchy. Sooner the better.
I know. Might as well wish for a pink pony.
Just so outdated and yet the Royals are entrenched. Boggles my mind.
Overpaid, underworked, not very bright, etc.
The Firm really is down to the the bush league bench for working Royals these days.
Where is Edward? Sophie is pitching in. Anne, even at her age is still game.
Andrew is out.
Will KC draft Bea and Eugenie into the starting line?
Zara and Mike? Zara is OK but I say no Mike.
I think I’m still following the BRF just to get a break from the endless Trump garbage.
The protection officers do have job security. But would not the people be just as well served by having the service as police for all?