Gerry Weatherhead had been in London to take photos of Trooping the Colour [Photo credit: © Gerry Weatherhead]
The seemingly unstoppable soldiers ploughed into Gerry Weatherhead, a semi-professional photographer who had inadvertently wandered into their path in a recording posted on YouTube which has gone viral.
‘It was more embarrassing than anything else,’ said Gerry, who had been using a Canon EOS-1D Mark III and a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for shooting Trooping the Colour.
In an interview with Amateur Photographer, the 58-year-old, from Haverhill in Suffolk, denied he was an ‘idiot tourist,’ as one witness had suggested in the video.
Gerry explained he had his back to the soldiers because he was handing his camera kit to his wife, Ros, before making a trip to the toilet in St James’s Park on 13 June.
‘It was a public area, in a city with lots of tourists and lots of noise,’ he said, adding that the incident lasted all of 30 seconds. ‘I just didn’t hear them coming.’
One of the soldiers is heard to shout, ‘Make way, move!’, but only as Gerry was already being shoved along the path out of their way.
Afterwards, a bystander is heard to cry out: ‘Stupid man’.
Gerry, a former RAF aircraft engineer, said he had been in the capital for Trooping the Colour and was proud to be there, his father having served in the Grenadiers.
‘It was always known that they [the soldiers] shout, “Make way”, before they get to you.’
However, Gerry bears no resentment towards the soldiers, despite them not appearing to issue any audible warning of their approach until it was too late.
‘If it was to happen again, they are the finest bunch of chaps to get run over by,’ he added.
Asked whether he plans to complain about his treatment, he quipped: ‘I might sue the Queen.’
Gerry has been a semi-professional photographer for more than 25 years.
The photographer’s clients include Gerry’s local pub, which displays his work on its walls.
