Queen honors Royal IT manager with personal duty award
The Royal Household's IT systems manager Toby Zeegan has been awarded the Royal Victorian Order by HM the Queen. The honour is awarded to those who have served the monarch for 'personal duty'.
(The thought of anyone asking the Queen to "turn it off, and turn it on again" had me in stitches.)
HM the Queen has, particularly in the past decade, appeared to embrace technology.
The Royal family launched its website in 1997 and followed a decade later with a YouTube channel, a Twitter account in 2009, and a Facebook page in 2010.
As part of the Queen's birthday celebrations, prominent people from around the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth who have made a difference to society or their local communities are awarded for their often selfless, charitable work.
The vast majority of those who are awarded the Royal Victorian Order work for the Royal family directly either as staff in the Queen's residences or work for the wider Royal family.
The Register notes Zeegan's class falls second from the bottom, with the top two conferring knighthoods on the recipient. So he won't get to call himself Sir Toby, but it's a start.
In the meantime, heir to the throne Prince Charles was bumped to the highest rank in all three military services. The position is a stones-throw away from commander-in-chief, for which --- God save the Queen --- one day he will become.
Naturally, it should come as no surprise that many of the headlines focused on the celebrities, broadcasters, and actors who were awarded Orders of the British Empire, knighthoods and the like. But most of the awards go to ordinary folk who work tirelessly for their fellow people.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC.
Related:
- Queen knights Apple design chief Sir Jonathan Ive in New Year’s honors list
- ZDNet: Google Doodle celebrates Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
- Former British PM blocked knighthood for Steve Jobs
- CNET: Google receives a visit from the queen
- Queen sends first e-mail… 30 years ago