In recognition of his service to the community, Dr. Akram Khan (Muslim faith advisor and lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing) recently attended a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. Here’s Akram describing how the day went . . .
“My wife and I were invited to attend the Queen’s Buckingham Palace Garden Party on Tuesday 21st May 2019 for recognition of community cohesion work through education and extended dedicated Chaplaincy Service at Sheffield Hallam University, respectively.
“Although this invitation was in the month of Ramadan, it was an honour and once-in-a life-time privileged opportunity to visit the palace and see Her Majesty the Queen and her magnificent gardens. We went by train from Doncaster, a journey that took under two hours, before catching a taxi to Buckingham Palace from Kings Cross. We arrived at around 3.30pm at the main palace gates, joining a queue of people. We were allowed in after a security check by police officers – with over eight thousand people attending the party, this was quite a job!
“The Queen’s guests were a sea of diversity filled with people of all cultural backgrounds and ages. Thousands of cups of tea, sandwiches, ice cream and slices of cakes were served. There were three different bands in tents that were playing music and at 4pm, as the national anthem was being played, Her Majesty the Queen entered the gardens to greet and talk with the eagerly awaiting guests.
“It was a splendid scene and a pleasure to see the large number of fabulously dressed people chatting in the garden, eating and enjoying the day, which was blessed with extremely good sunny weather and pleasant temperature. Her Majesty slowly walked through a corridor of guests that lined up to greet her on both sides and it took about an hour for her to walk through cordoned off area – we were stood on the boundary taking photos – to the royal tent that was situated next to the diplomatic tent, which was attended by diplomats and local dignitaries. Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Prince William as well as the Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance. It was such a privilege to be in the presence of the Royal household and to be stood literally a few feet away.
“Afterwards we walked through the gardens and discovered their magnificent beauty. One cannot imagine that such a vast area of trees, flowers and ponds with wild life actually exists in the centre of the capital, but then this is the home to the Queen. We have made lots of videos and taken lots of photos inside the palace to treasure these memories for the rest of our lives.”
