The Queen of England is head of state of over 16 commonwealth realms with include many nations
and their overseas territories.
The United Kingdom has close diplomatic relations with 53 commonwealth nations and it counts
more than 134 Embassies and Consulates spread all over the world.
If you look back at the history of the country, Britain has made colonies around the globe,
ruled more than 23% of the world population at a time, fought both the world wars and
hundreds of smaller wars and battles in almost every corner of the world.
Between making colonies, fighting battles, winning wars, establishing colonies, ruling
people and maintaining good relations with allies - one thing is extremely essential
and that's COMMUNICATION, and very often SECRETIVE COMMUNICATION - exchange of mails or parcels
between Britain and its High commissions, consulates and embassies around the world
without being hijacked or compromised.
For more than 5 centuries, UK has employed a group of loyal men called "King's or Queen's
messengers" who have carried government’s top-secret mails and parcels around the world
risking their lives and facing dangers that may sound stranger than fiction.
These people wear plain clothes, travel in commercial planes sitting next to you and
carry no gun, yet, this lesser-known service is dubbed as one of the most efficient and
successful secretive services in the world.
The service goes back as far as the 15th century when King Richard III reputedly employed a
messenger to hand deliver secret documents for his monarch.
Later on, Charles II, exiled in Europe, appointed four trusted men to convey messages to Royalist
forces in England.
When asked how they were to be identified as His Majesty's messengers, Charles II broke
off four greyhounds from a silver breakfast platter familiar to royal courtiers and presented
each with this token.
A silver greyhound thus became the symbol of the service which has remained so to this
day.
This also gave the messengers a nickname of "Silver Greyhound".
On formal occasions, the Queen's Messengers wear this badge from a ribbon, and on less
formal occasions many messengers wear ties with a discreet greyhound pattern while working.
This distinctive tie with embroidered pattern works as a pass-key and proves the identity
of the messenger in situations where it's difficult to show the Queen messenger's special
passport.
As messengers proved their usefulness over time, their number increased and by the 17th
century, King's Messengers became an important department in the royal palace.
Starting from 1795 messengers began to be deployed abroad and their role became not
only important but also dangerous.
With England being in war with France, it was now impossible to predict when a messenger
would arrive back in London.
Some were killed whilst on duty while others still succeeded despite dangers.
On his way to Europe, a messenger named Andrew Basilico was caught in France but when French
officers opened the package they found nothing but bundles of plain papers.
Basilico, knowing he was about to be caught, had eaten the papers that contained sensitive
information.
In another case, a messenger's boat and package were once seized by pirates.
The wily messenger challenged the pirate chief to a contest of solving a chess puzzle from
an old newspaper clipping.
Pirates accepted the challenge being unknown to the fact that the Queen's messenger had
already seen the answer in the following week's edition.
Briton won the contest and pirates had to let him go with his bag.
Another messenger, forced to stay in an unsafe Chinese Hotel, deliberately left his wallet
on his bed secreting his diplomatic pouch under the bed frame.
The wallet was stolen but, satisfied with his haul, the thief did not search the room
further.
Queen's Messengers have faced threats of the sort one would see in spy thriller movies.
While traveling on communist trains, Queen's Messenger would carry portable stoves to get
food safe enough to eat and avoid getting poisoned.
A number of messengers have reported encounters with honey traps on their way - women of rare
beauty would try to seduce them in order to get secret couriers while others have tried
to persuade messengers to take them across the borders using their diplomatic passports.
Commitment to the nation has enabled messengers to dodge all bullets.
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 gave Queen's messengers even more
widely acceptable recognition and guaranteed diplomatic baggage a safer passage without
any hindrance.
Messengers carry a special "Queen's Messenger" passport that allows them to avoid regular
airport checks and also provide them immunity from being detained.
Mails and curious are carried in a bag closed with a tamper-proof seal and has its own diplomatic
passport.
This bag does not go through normal airport baggage-checks and must not be opened, x-rayed,
weighed, or otherwise investigated by customs, airline security staff, or anyone else for
that matter.
In March 2000 Zimbabwe opened Britain's six-tonne diplomatic shipment which sparked diplomatic
tensions between the two nations.
Confidential mails and documents aren't the only things Queen Messengers have carried
in their bags.
During the world war 2, Winston Churchill received shipments of Cuban cigars by this
means.
Each year the Queen's pre-recorded Christmas Day message is sent in the diplomatic bag
to every corner of the world.
Queen's messengers, today, work under Foreign and Commonwealth Office of UK government.
According to the official release of 2015, 18 messengers of age 40-70 are actively performing
their duty for the government.
Their number has greatly reduced over the last few decades because of the advent of
satellite communications.
The potential danger of cyber hacking, code-breaking and Wikileaks won't completely eliminate this
service anytime soon.