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The Prince of Wales has been urged to step down as Colonel of the Welsh Guards unless he can intervene to end the alleged racist abuse of a Jamaican soldier serving in the regiment.
Private Kerry Hylton is taking the army to an employment tribunal over a series of incidents at his barracks in Birdcage Walk, close to Buckingham Palace.
Hylton’s solicitor has written to Prince Charles complaining that letters to the commanding officer of the Welsh Guards detailing the abuse allegations have gone unanswered.
The tribunal has been told that Hylton, a chef with the Welsh Guards, has been repeatedly called a “n*****”, a “dumb-arsed n*****”, a “black bastard” and a “black c***”. His wife and children have been left in fear after two incidents in which the locks on the doors at the family’s married quarters were superglued shut.
When Hylton complained that a noncommissioned officer who racially abused him had also punched him, leaving him requiring hospital treatment, he was himself arrested by the Royal Military police.
The allegations of racism are likely to concern Charles, who in 1986 highlighted the race issue among the Queen’s household troops when he remarked that there were no black faces at the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
In his letter to the prince, John Mackenzie, Hylton’s solicitor, wrote: “It seems to me that your regiment has no interest in safeguarding the interests of the ethnic minority private soldiers acting as chefs in the battalion.”
Although Hylton is a private in the Royal Logistic Corps rather than a guardsman, he works full-time for the Welsh Guards.
Mackenzie’s letter went on: “In view of your constitutional position, I write to urge you to cease to act as Colonel of the Welsh Guards until the regiment can show that it takes seriously its obligation to ensure that ethnic minority soldiers are treated fairly.”
Hylton’s wife Andrea said that she and her two young children, Andre, 3, and four-year-old Kerryann had been left feeling “frightened and unwelcome” by the attacks on their army flat. She thought they had been generated by the racism claim.
After Charles complained 20 years ago about the lack of ethnic minorities in the guards regiments, they recruited Richard Stokes, their first black soldier. But Stokes quit the Grenadier Guards, despite encouragement from Charles to remain, after suffering racist attacks including verbal abuse similar to Hylton’s.
The Ministry of Defence said: “The army has a zero tolerance policy to racism and takes allegations of racism very seriously.” Clarence House declined to comment.
Read Mick Smith's defence blog at www.timesonline.co.uk/micksmith
