Not very well planned it must be said – I was at Buckingham Palace with Annabel and our son Jack, on the day that Prince Edward visited Adams Grammar in Shropshire. I gather HM Lord Lieutenant coped without me. We had a wonderful time on a lovely spring day and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Buckingham Palace gardens – there are some truly magnificent trees – especially London Plane, Hornbeam and a big Deodar Cedar – certainly big for central London. I received a dressing down from Lady Dunne for dressing down – I was in a suit and not a morning coat, she, of course looked magnificent as did, her husband Sir Thomas, former Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire.   I chatted about practising golf on the Palace lawns with Prince Andrew to whom we all had the pleasure of being introduced and it was very good to see Superintendent Nav Malik – until recently the senior police officer in Telford but now at Hindlip Hall.   We left London late passing through Shrewsbury in the early hours of Thursday morning. An alert traffic officer observed that I had slightly overrun the STOP line at a set of lights and duly pulled me over – I hadn’t been drinking and I was allowed to continue on my journey.

 Photo: David, Jack, and Annabel Stacey outside Buckingham Palace