Prince William and Harry’s former bodyguard, who walked behind Princess Diana’s hearse, dead at 77
Prince William and Prince Harry’s former bodyguard, Graham Craker, has died at age 77.
The beloved palace staffer, who was affectionally nicknamed “Crackers” by the young brothers, served as their personal protection officer at the time of their mother Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
His cause of death is unknown at this time.
Craker walked with William and Harry behind their late mother’s hearse at the funeral as it made its way from St. James’s Palace to Westminster Abbey.
He then accompanied Diana’s coffin on its final journey to her childhood home at Althorp House, which is her final resting place.
In his bombshell memoir “Spare,” released in 2023, Harry recalled Craker having to repeatedly remove flowers from the windscreen thrown by mourners during the procession.
“The driver had to keep pulling over so the bodyguard could get out and clear the flowers off the windscreen,” the Duke of Sussex, 40, wrote.
“The bodyguard was Graham. Willy and I liked him a lot. We always called him Crackers. We thought that was hysterical.”
Craker also accompanied the late princess during a family trip to the Alton Towers theme park in England in 1994.
In an interview after the beloved royal’s tragic death, Craker recalled the moment he learned the news while at Balmoral with the rest of the royal family.
“I crept down the stairs to the house phone and dialed the duty office at Buckingham Palace,” he said in the interview after his retirement. They said there were reports there’d been an accident and Dodi Fayed had been killed and the Princess had a broken arm.”
“It was disbelief, really, and obviously a great deal of sorrow,” he added. “You try and deal with it as best you can but you do get quite emotional about it.”
Craker shared a poignant encounter with William the following morning, saying the exchange was “perhaps the most emotional” one.
“I saw William walking his dog outside, and I walked up to him and said, ‘I’m very, very sorry to hear your bad news.’ William very sadly said, ‘Thank you.’”
“William was comforted I was with his mum on her final journey,” he added.
In 2011, Craker was a guest at the future king’s wedding to Kate Middleton.
Prior to joining the royal family’s security team, he had spent 35 years serving in London’s Metropolitan Police.
Craker later spent a total of 15 years working as a royal bodyguard until his retirement in 2001.
He was later appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the royal family. The late monarch also made him a Freeman of the City of London.
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