Australian reporter picks random man from queue to talk about Queen – only to learn he was BLACK ROD who had spent years preparing for the monarch’s death
- The reporter wanted a comment from ‘Joe Public’ who hilariously was Black Rod
- Lieutenant-General David Leakey, 70, was Black Rod for seven years until 2018
- ABC news correspondent Barbara Miller found him queuing at Embankment
- The previous Black Rod educated the reporter on the role in Australian Parliament
- The Queen’s funeral: All the latest Royal Family news and coverage
The television reporter only wanted a few words from a random ‘Joe Public’ in the queue to view the Queen’s coffin.
So she was startled to find the modest man patiently inching his way forward was actually Elizabeth II’s former officer in parliament, Black Rod – who had helped organise the very lying in state he was slowly heading for.
The chance happening took place when Australian ABC news correspondent Barbara Miller thrust her microphone at a casually dressed man with grey hair on the embankment across the Thames from Parliament.
He turned out to be Lieutenant-General David Leakey, 70, who wore the tights and buckled shoes of Black Rod for seven years until 2018.
Ms Miller said to him, as the camera rolled: ‘Can I ask where you’ve come from?’
Lt Gen Leakey replied, gesturing to Westminster: ‘Well, I used to work over there, but, yeah…’
Miller: ‘What was your work?’
Leakey: ‘I was Black Rod.’
The televsion reporter was startled to find the modest man patiently inching his way forward was actually Elizabeth II’s former officer in parliament, Black Rod
‘Joe Public’ turned out to be Lieutenant-General David Leakey, 70, who wore the tights and buckled shoes of Black Rod for seven years until 2018
Miller: ‘Oh, wow…we’re talking to Australia, so explain that to Australia..’
Leakey: ‘Black Rod? Well, you have a Black Rod in Australia, in the Australian parliament…you didn’t know that?
‘So, Black Rod is the Queen’s representative in Parliament – and one of Black Rod’s roles is to organise the whole of the event that’s going on in the lying in state in Westminster Hall.’
Miller: Oh, wow, so you would have been doing that, had you still been working?’
Leakey: ‘I did that for seven years, and if the Queen died whilst I was doing it, I’d be over there organising and presiding over the whole thing.
‘But I retired from that three years ago, and Sarah Clarke took over from me, and now I’m just a Joe Public and stood in the queue and waiting to go and see the result of some of the plans I worked on for seven years.’
Lt-Gen Leakey served as Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod – famously having to bang on the door of the Commons at its State Openings with his yard-long ebony staff – after spending almost 40 years as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment.
He was replaced by the first female Black Rod in the position’s 650 year history, former Wimbledon tennis championships director Sarah Clarke.
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