To appear before the King
The despatch read:
Your attendance is required at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday the twenty-fifth inst. at ten-thirty o’clock a.m. Service dress Regret that no one except those to be invested can be admitted to the Palace Please telegraph acknowledgment
The Lord Chamberlain, London
I went to London as the guest of some old friends named Morris, and accompanied by Miss Dora Morris, daughter of the family, and Miss Norah Dixon of Australia, motored to Buckingham Palace, arriving under the arch at one of the entrances and then not being certain as to which of the roadways of approach to Buckingham I should take.
I had the problem solved for me by a “bobby” who, with an agonized expression, ran toward our car, frantically waving his white gloves.
“Out of the way quickly, sir!” he shouted.
I was pardonably nettled.
“But I have been commanded here to receive the Military Cross.”
He saluted, but shouted to the chauffeur:
“To the left—to the left. Good Lor’, the King’s behind you!”