KING Charles has complained that changing the guard is too noisy – and ordered troops to keep it down.
The elite household guards, who have protected royal palaces since 1660, were told “some volume control would be very much appreciated by those inside”.
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It is understood that the monarch “remarked” about the noisy guardsman because it distracted him from State business.
A leaked memo from King Charles’ equerry’s office stated: “His Majesty remarked the other day how loud the outgoing sentries were at St James’s Palace in the morning.
“Full marks for vigour and volume, but please could you pass down to those on guard that Clarence House is a residence and so some volume control would be very much appreciated by those inside!”
Clarence House, in the grounds of St James’s Palace, has long been Charles and Camilla’s London home.
They are yet to move into Buckingham Palace.
Following King Charles’ complaint, an army officer told the guard commanders: “Please could you pass onto your troops that when posting sentries first thing in the morning at St James’s Palace that they should do so at a slightly lower volume.”
The troops in bearskins and red tunics routinely bark orders at full volume as they march in and out of sentry positions around the royal palaces.
The King is said to be an early riser and regularly works from home at Clarence House in the morning before heading to Buckingham Palace later in the day, it is claimed.
But the loud shouting outside his window by the Changing of the Guard in the morning has distracted him from work including reading briefing documents in government red boxes, it is said.
Sources insist he was not complaining about the guardsmen’s behaviour.
The plea is understood to be a ‘gentle request’ passed to the guardsmen via the King’s equerry team to keep the noise down only in the morning while he works at Clarence House.
The King is also preparing for the May 6 Coronation and will be rehearsing the ceremony in a mock-up Westminster Abbey inside Buckingham Palace’s ballroom.
A spokesman for the King declined to comment.
The Kings Guard are officially based at St James’s Palace with a detachment posted to Buckingham Palace.
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