THE former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales was released on police bail
yesterday, following his arrest over the alleged theft of a £500,000
diamond-encrusted model boat, one of her wedding presents.
Paul Burrell had been held for 16 hours for
questioning at Runcorn police station in Cheshire
following a dawn raid on his home near Chester by
Scotland Yard detectives. He was driven away at
speed from the police station at 1pm yesterday as
15 uniformed officers blocked waiting
photographers.
Police officers had conducted a 12-hour search at
Burrell's home as part of an investigation into the
disappearance of the model boat, which was given
to the Prince and Princess of Wales by the Emir of Bahrain. It was found on
sale in a Chelsea antique shop. Harold Brown, 48, a butler who worked for
the Princess and later Princess Margaret, was arrested in November and
bailed in connection with the investigation. Another man, aged 50, was
arrested and bailed the same month.
Before the death of the Princess, few had heard of Mr Burrell, who was her
devoted butler for almost 10 years. Today the 42-year-old son of a lorry
driver is a household name, both in Britain and America. He was the public
face of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and an energetic
fund-raiser; a man unabashed at shedding tears as he spoke movingly about
the woman who called him her "rock".
Hollywood stars paid thousands of dollars to attend fund-raising dinners at
top hotels to hear him speak. Few issues of Hello! and OK! magazines
appeared without his photograph at a ball or charity auction. He even ran the
London Marathon to raise money in memory of his former employer. He was
made redundant from the £35,000-a-year post he loved just before
Christmas two years ago.
Dr Andrew Purkis, chief executive of the memorial fund, pointed out that two
years after the Princess's death, the trust was more about distributing the
millions raised rather than fund-raising. But he did not seek to disguise the
trust's unease that Burrell was, by then, thriving a little too well on the
celebrity.
Dr Purkis said: "You cannot have individual members of staff having all kinds
of unauthorised discussions and running their own solo PR show. There's
bound to be tension when someone who is a full-scale media personality, and
who would dearly love to be even more of a media personality, is working as
just one staff member in a charity."
Burrell has made a lucrative career out of his celebrity status. Having been
forced to leave his Kensington Palace apartment - the Queen vetoed his
request to stay - he lives with his wife Maria, a former maid to Prince Philip,
and their two sons, Alex 14, and Nicky, 10, in a cottage.
If "friends" of his quoted regularly in tabloid newspapers are to be believed,
he has been offered £1 million to publish his memoirs - a deal he allegedly
rejected through loyalty to the late Princess. Job offers are said to have
included posts offered by the actors Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson - again
rejected.
Instead, much of his time is spent away from home on lecture tours, including
one aboard the QE2, or promotional tours for his two books, Entertaining
with Style and Style for Life. He is a regular guest on chat shows in Britain
and in the United States, and hosted a slot on Gloria Hunniford's Channel 5
show. He writes an etiquette column in a tabloid newspaper, peppered with
titbits of innocuous information about his years with the Princess. His name
has been linked with various television projects, including one on stately
homes.
One of his sources of income is as an after-dinner speaker. Ironically, on the
night he spent under arrest at Runcorn police station, he was due to be
addressing a black-tie function organised by Cheshire Police. It was cancelled
just hours before Scotland Yard detectives raided his home at dawn in the
village of Farndon.
Burrell, whose father was a lorry driver for the Coal Board and whose mother
worked in a canteen, lives a life far removed from those of his school friends
in the Derbyshire pit village of Grassmore. He has spent 20 years in service
with the Royal Family - first as a footman to the Queen, then as butler to the
Prince and Princess of Wales at Highgrove.
It is said that when the royal couple separated, Burrell's name was at the top
of the Princess's list of "things" to take with her to Kensington Palace. In
recognition of his long service he has been awarded the Royal Victorian
Medal. In the aftermath of the Princess's death, Burrell flew to Paris and kept
vigil by her body until the Prince of Wales arrived. He was to be the only
"outsider" present when she was buried on the Spencer estate at Althorp,
Northants.
In the six months following her death, he remained at Kensington Palace
cataloguing her estate and packing valuables for safe keeping. "It was a great
comfort," he said in a typically emotional interview. "I was still taking care of
her, looking after her - working for her. "I was mourning and grieving her but
it was the best place I could be. It was my environment, my world - my final
duty to take care of her possessions, to catalogue them, to protect them.
"I knew I had to do it. Who else could? She was surrounded by the richest,
the most educated, the most landed people in this country and she chose me,
a lorry driver's son from Derbyshire. She called me her rock, and I was
there."
~*~
Diana's 'rock'(BBC News)
Paul Burrell dubbed by Princess Diana as her
"rock" always knew he wanted a royal career.
The 42-year-old son of a lorry driver was the
Princess's butler, close friend and confidant for
more than 10 years.
But it was when he was a boy that he decided
on a royal career.
On a day trip to see the changing of the guard
at Buckingham Palace he said to his parents: "I
want to work here one day."
Less than six years later, after a college
course in hotel management and catering in
Buxton, he got a job at the palace.
Job offers
He learned after his mother's death that she
had played a role in fulfilling his ambition.
When he was 18 he got a job offer from
Cunard and the palace.
But his mother saw the
letters first and burnt
the one from Cunard.
Mr Burrell entered the
royal household in 1976
as a trainee footman
and within a year was
appointed personal
footman to the Queen.
In 1984 he married
Maria, then a maid to
Prince Phillip, and they
have two sons, Alexander and Nicholas.
The couple both joined the staff of the Wales's
in 1986 and were given jobs at Highgrove - he
as butler, she as a maid and dresser.
The royal manservant stayed with Diana
throughout her marriage break-up.
Indeed the Princess wrote two words when
asked what she wanted to salvage from her
broken marriage - they were Paul Burrell.
In the aftermath of her death, Mr Burrell was
asked to spearhead the Diana Memorial Fund,
the charitable foundation set up in her name.
He said: "I tried to protect the princess during
her lifetime and now I am trying to protect her
memory."
And in September 1997
he was awarded the
Royal Victorian Medal
by the Queen in
recognition of his
service to the Royal
Family and the Princess
of Wales.
Interviewed two years
after the Paris car
crash, he said: "If I
could have one wish, it
would be to put the
clock back and for
everything to be like it was before she died."
He flew around the world raising money for the
good causes she believed in.
After dinner speeches
Since then he has been demand for
after-dinner speeches and has launched a
writing career.
The Derbyshire-born Butler wrote a cookery
and etiquette book about how to entertain in
royal style.
He also added a newspaper column and
magazine articles offering advice on dinner
parties minus "snobbery".
And as an after-dinner speaker he bases his
talks on nearly two decades of service with
the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the
Prince and Princess of Wales.
Mr Burrell, of Wrexham, North Wales, wrote to
the Queen after the Princess's death asking if
he and his wife Maria and two children could
remain in their home in Kensington Palace.
But a palace spokesman said then that
everybody who left Royal employment had to
give up the free accommodation that went
with it.