A WHITCHURCH resident has rubbed shoulders with royalty as part of a special anniversary event.

Graham Burgess, from The Weir, attended a reception by Her Majesty the Queen last week to mark the 50th birthday of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

The landscape designer was invited to the event, held at Buckingham Palace, as one of the 5,000 people to receive a ‘ C h u r c h i l l Fellowship’ from the charity since its inception in 1965.

The fellowships, which can pay for trips anywhere in the world, are designed to give British citizens the chance to travel oversees to undertake studies into their personal interests.

While at the event, the 70-year-old, who still runs his own landscaping business, shook hands with Her Majesty, met some of the recent fellows and learned about their discoveries.

He said: “It was absolutely amazing.

“We shook hands with the Queen and the Duke (of Edinburgh) and then we were taken into another room where we had food and champagne and the Queen went round speaking to everyone.

“It was a lovely day.”

Mr Burgess received a fellowship in 1972 and travelled to all of the major botanical gardens and zoos in Europe to investigate how they used leisure provisions to raise money.

Since then he has worked at Kew Gardens, were he mentored a young Alan Titchmarsh, and became a director at the John Lewis Partnership.

Talking about his fellowship, Mr Burgess, who is also the chairman for the south branch of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, said: “In terms of my research it reinforced things that I suspected before and added to it as well.

“It was quite incredible.

“Nowhere else would you get support for research like that and the amount of amazing people you meet is unbelievable.”

To find out more about the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, visit wcmt.org.uk.