Later this month the erstwhile chief executive of the Bar Council, David Hobart, takes up his new role as chief executive of the City of London Law Society.

The Society may not have realised that it is gaining not only a former bar bigwig, and a former assistant chief of the defence staff, but also a gentleman usher to the Queen.

Hobart was late to a Bar Standards Board meeting last Thursday evening as he was attending to his ‘duties’ with the Middletons at the abbey.

Indeed, viewers watching last Friday’s Royal Wedding may have spotted him, resplendent in uniform and ceremonial sword, escorting the King of Tonga to his seat.