Local reverend’s royal honour: London man meets Queen Camilla

A London reverend and judge of the Commonwealth Essay Contest is back after meeting Queen Camilla. CTV’s Reta Ismail reports.

A London man is back home after receiving one of the highest honours of his life, an invitation to meet Queen Camilla at St. James’s Palace.

Retired Reverend Keith McKee and his wife Jan recently returned from London, England, where McKee was invited by Buckingham Palace to attend the annual awards luncheon for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition.

For more than nine years McKee has volunteered as a judge for the contest - the world’s oldest writing competition for young people - with Queen Camilla as its patron.

This year, Her Majesty personally requested he attend the ceremony to thank him for his work promoting literacy around the world.

“I’ve been a member and a volunteer with the Royal Commonwealth Society since 2017,” McKee said. “I started off judging about 150 essays a year, but last year I judged 500… so in total, I think it’s about 3,000 essays that I have judged.”

Inside the historic palace, in the same room where King Charles III was proclaimed King, McKee joined diplomats, ambassadors and young contest winners before meeting Queen Camilla.

“The Queen is an extraordinarily gracious woman,” he said. “She has a beautiful smile, a great sense of humour, and she has a profound interest in Canada.”

McKee says Queen Camilla highlighted Canada’s increasing participation in the competition, “She paid special attention to Canada,” he said. “She even read an excerpt from Anne of Green Gables and ended her speech by saying the secret to writing is knowing when to end.”

A longtime community volunteer, McKee was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal earlier this year for his contributions to the competition - but the trip had a lighter moment as well.

“I never thought as a Presbyterian minister I would ever drink champagne with Geri Halliwell-Horner,” he laughed, noting the former Spice Girl now serves as an ambassador for the contest. “It was incredible.”

McKee says he plans to continue promoting the essay competition across Canada in hopes of inspiring even more young writers to participate next year.