The Tower of London’s newest Ravenmaster says he’s fallen in love with the birds protecting the United Kingdom’s survival.
Michael Chandler, 57, an Afghanistan veteran and former Royal Marine appointed in March, looks after ravens which have guarded the Thames landmark for 1,000 years.
According to legend if they left, the White Tower would crumble and Kingdom of England collapse.
In the 17th century, King Charles II when told of the prophecy decreed that there must always be six ravens at the tower.
There are currently seven inhabiting the ancient prison where the Crown Jewels are stored, one more than the number needed to avert disaster, Mr Chandler explained.
Better known as Barney, he is only the sixth person to take on the solemn role.
“Initially, the draw was the legend of the ravens and then being here seeing them, working amongst them... it was just natural,” Mr Chandler said of his career progression.
“I fell in love with the ravens,” he added, praising their intelligence.
“They’re individuals, they are characters, just like us,” he said.
Dressed in his black and red uniform and identifiable by his round flat-brimmed hat, Mr Chandler commands a four-person team of Yeoman Warder, or Beefeaters, responsible for feeding, caring for and monitoring the ravens.
He served in Iraq and Afghanistan and had no particular interest in the birds before arriving at the Tower of London 14 years ago.
When AFP reporters visited the tower recently, two of the ravens, Edgar and Harris, were in no hurry to eat their breakfast of two dead chicks, which Mr Chandler fed to them through the bars of their enclosure.
Their companions - Poppy, Rex (the latest arrival named in honour of King Charles III), Georgie and Jubilee - were already outside, wandering among the tourists, which number around three million each year.
Branwen, the seventh, has refused for several years to sleep with the rest of the flock.
“They’re territorial birds. So even if we let them out during the day, they don’t go anywhere,” he explained.
Even so, several of their feathers are shortened on one wing to prevent them from flying too high.
The life expectancy of ravens in the tower is around 20 years, compared with between 10 and 15 in the wild. The oldest raven lived for 44 years.
The mischievous and sociable birds sometimes scare tourists who do not expect to see them up so close, perched on a staircase or a railing.
“I’ve seen a raven poking his nose through a carrier bag to steal a cheese straw from a school kids packed lunch,” recalled Mr Chandler.
“They are serving His Majesty as much as we in the (king's) bodyguard do,“ he said, assuring that King Charles “does check up on them regularly, as did his mother”.
Another momentous duty that ex-soldier undertook with fellow warders was to protect the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey following her death in September 2022.
“It was the proudest moment of my life,” said father-of-four Mr Chandler, “but you shouldn’t tell my wife that!”.
Built by King William I after his conquest of England in 1066, it served as a royal residence for several hundred years, but is more famous as a prison.
The palace is where “the princes in the tower”, sons of King Edward IV, were confined in 1483 and allegedly murdered by their uncle, King Richard III, and where Anne Boleyn was executed in 1536 after Henry VIII grew tired of his second wife.
Other famous inmates have included Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth I; Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up Parliament; and Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Nowadays, millions of tourists come each year to soak up a millennium of history and see the glittering Crown Jewels.
