Andrew Rammed Windsor Park Gates in a Rage when they Didn't Open in Time

Mountbatten-Windsor also let a police officer take the blame for an accident and hit another police officer with his car.

With the public pressure at boiling point over Andrew’s alleged behaviour, I wanted to share the following excerpt from Entitled that gives an idea of how appallingly Andrew often treated his protection officers and staff, and why their complaints about him were ignored even when he hit an officer with his car.

(An Excerpt from ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’)

Because Andrew has never been disciplined, he knows he can behave exactly as he wishes. A favourite game was to insist on driving himself and then try and lose the back-up protection car by speeding up the motorway and suddenly turning off onto a side road. His protection officers were called on to collect his golf balls after he had driven them down the fairway, and maids summoned from four floors below to open the curtains beside him. He once called a television technician at night to show him how to work the remote control on a TV set at Sunninghill.

Wendy Berry, the housekeeper at Highgrove whose son worked at Buckingham Palace, noted that for the duke, staff were basically invisible, ‘there to serve and not to question his actions’. She pointed out his thoughtlessness as upsetting most of the housemaids and valets who worked for him: ‘Apparently his bedtime habits as a single man left a lot to be desired, and a collection of scrunched-up, soiled tissues usually lay scattered around the bed each morning for staff to collect after they had made his bed.’

A royal aide described him in 2021 as ‘a deeply unpleasant man. The difference you see between him and the way Prince William and the Prince of Wales treat their staff with respect, straight out of the Queen’s handbook, is stark.’ Colin Burgess, who served as equerry to the Queen Mother for many years, made the distinction: with Andrew, ‘there was a wrong way and a right way and that was that’. It was obvious to Burgess in the way the royals viewed the Queen Mother’s staff. For Charles, they were her companions, but to Andrew staff were just employees and were to be treated as such.

‘Charles saw my role as more of a social one,’ said Burgess, ‘while Andrew saw me as the Queen Mother’s equerry who organised trips and oversaw various aspects of her correspondence and that was that. I saw Andrew about once a month, when he came to visit Clarence House, and he would talk to the staff, including me, as an officer talks to his subordinates. He would say things such as: “I want this done and I want it done now” or “Have that done by such and such a time.” I remember him always saying “Do it!” which was his catchphrase of sorts.’

One Windsor worker likened Andrew to Toad of Toad Hall roaring around the roads.

If Andrew came to visit the Queen Mother, he showed no interest in the staff and their personal lives. ‘In all honesty,’ recalled Burgess, ‘he wasn’t a particularly nice person. I remember nearly telling him where to go when he came into Clarence House and wanted something wrapped. He looked at me and barked, “You, wrap that!” and pointed to some object. I just thought, you rude, ignorant sod, and felt like decking him.’

Everything revolves around Andrew and is about him. One woman who met him at a party in Saint-Tropez said, ‘He doesn’t have much conversation other than himself.’ The journalist Petronella Wyatt first met him at a society party in the country in the 1990s, when he behaved like he expected to be treated royally. He was self-important, insisted on deference and had no self-awareness. ‘He reminded me of Princess Margaret, who thought she was more royal than the Queen,’ said Wyatt. ‘He talked and you had to listen and ignored all attempts to change the conversation. He was as charming as a bull in a china shop and continued to make inappropriate jokes. He’s the most out-of-touch royal I’ve ever met and I’ve met lots. He really does believe in the Divine Right of Kings.’

Andrew has always felt the rules did not apply to him, beginning with roll call at Gordonstoun, which he often missed. Stories abound of him being banned from golf clubs because he ignored club rules on the use of mobiles. Tim Reilly, a Cambridge graduate and a vice-president of Kroll, remembers meeting Andrew in Russia when he was trade envoy. ‘Even they were stunned by his undisguised avarice; on one occasion he was angling to be given a Fabergé egg when on an official Kremlin Museum/Treasury tour … Putin could finish Andrew (and the Royal Family) anytime he likes with photos, tales and evidence he no doubt has on Andrew in Russia.’

In October 2005 Andrew refused to go through a security scanner at Melbourne airport on a private visit en route to New Zealand, claiming that ‘lack of respect’ had been demonstrated. Eventually, after being refused permission to board, he agreed to be checked with a hand detector. It took ten seconds. A security worker was quoted asking, ‘Who does he think he is? What a pompous prick. Everyone has to go through security screening. He should be happy to do so and set an example.’

And there is a history of road incidents. In 2002 the duke was stopped by police for speeding at 60 in a 40-mph area, rushing to catch a plane to Scotland to watch the Open Golf Championship. When stopped he refused to get out of the car, leaving his protection officer to handle it. The offence carries a minimum fine of £60 and three penalty points, but Andrew was let off on the grounds that ‘I’m in a hurry’.

On another occasion he had an accident driving his Range Rover near Borehamwood. His protection officer took the blame. In July 2009 the Windsor Park lodge keepers signed a petition to the Queen, complaining about Andrew speeding through Windsor Great Park in his Aston Martin breaking the speed limit and ‘forcing them to leap out of the way as he zooms past’.

Travelling to Royal Lodge in March 2016 in his £80,000 Range Rover, he found the gates’ sensor in Windsor Great Park broken. Instead of taking a mile detour, he rammed the gates open, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage — money that ultimately came from the taxpayer. A formal complaint by Republic CEO Graham Smith to Thames Valley Police was dismissed on the grounds that it had to be reported by someone involved in the alleged incident. A Windsor worker remarked, ‘He has a bit of a reputation for roaring around like Toad of Toad Hall and seems to think he can do what he likes.’

In 2010 the duke hit a policeman as he sped into Buckingham Palace. The uniformed officer suffered an arm injury and complained to his bosses, but nothing was done. In September 2013, two days after a trespasser was found in the State Rooms, Andrew was mistaken for an intruder in the Buckingham Palace garden after going for an early evening walk. He was ‘livid’, admonishing the policeman, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’, later releasing a sarcastic statement that he was ‘grateful for their apology’.

Ken Wharfe, personal bodyguard to Princess Diana and her two sons, was scathing after being evicted from his seat on a return flight from Balmoral so that Andrew could look out of the window. ‘Unlike the rest of his family, Andrew has always proven to be a very arrogant individual,’ said Wharfe. ‘It’s just in his nature … and anyone he comes across in policing or public service is certainly of a lower class than him … His manners are just awful and his behaviour and attitude quite frankly does not endear him to everybody.’