FROM Royalty to Raffles, from Lady Di to Liz Taylor, Wayne Fitzharris has provided service to them all. The Great Harwood man who trains butlers for a living spoke to Jason Kayley, fresh from his trip to the Middle East, where he and his staff looked after many of the world’s Heads of State, including President Donald Trump...

WAYNE FITZHARRIS spends most of his working life helping to serve VIPs in some of the most high-profile venues across the world.

But it’s from his Great Harwood home where he lives and runs his businesses, Aspire Globally and the British Butler School, which trains and supplies butlers and serving staff to the most prestigious households and restaurants across the globe.

So it’s a far cry from where his career started, namely the kitchens of Accrington Victoria Hospital in 1982.

He said: “My grandmother was my inspiration. She was a renowned chef and housekeeper and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.

“She was a fantastic chef and it made her very proud that I took the career path I did.”

After gracing a few establishments across East Lancashire – including the former Ye Olde Brown Cow in Oswaldtwistle – and in Kent, his first plum role was to work at the Ritz in London and then alongside the great Anton Mosimann at the Dorchester Hotel.

He said: “We had so many great guests. The Queen, The Queen Mother, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlton Heston as well as royalty from overseas, presidents and other dignitaries.

“They were usually very humble people, and I train my staff to be humble. They treated you with respect and you gave that in return. It was a great honour to serve them.

“Once we had the full cast from Coronation Street in. Helen Worth, who plays Gail Platt in the ITV soap, loved my Lancashire accent.

“I also had the pleasure to tell Phil Collins that a jacket was required to go into the bar and I once leant Mick Jagger a tie so he could attend a function.

“There’s never been a dull moment.”

Then after a couple of years at the Old Course Hotel at St Andrew’s, he was appointed Palace Manager to the Jordanian Royal Family, King Hussein and Queen Noor.

“That was the biggest honour of my life,” he said. “They were a very warm and generous family.

“Because of my background in luxury hotels, I was head-hunted for the position and when I joined the King said ‘Welcome to our family.’ And that’s how we were treated, as a member of the family.

“Every day, I tried to get our staff to improve the level of service. Both for the family but for the staff to make themselves better and improve their skills. And the family were always appreciative of our service.

“They used to be very generous with their gifts to us, and I always liked to buy them a gift at Christmas. But what do you get people who have everything?

“So one year, I got them a video of something I had been watching in the UK, the first season of Absolutely Fabulous.

“The family liked to watch videos in the evening and it was a huge joy when we heard them laugh and laugh at the video I’d got them. They were really wonderful people.

“Sean Connery and Harrison Ford once dined at the Royal Palace as they filmed one of the Indian Jones films in Jordan.

“And President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hilary Clinton were visitors to the palace. They were an inspiration to me because of their efforts to restore peace in the Middle East.

“I remember their security were so strict, they almost prevented me from serving lunch to their majesties because I didn’t have a security card. I’d never needed one before, because they knew who I was. Her majesty was not best pleased that her lunch had been delayed by the FBI.”

But it was one special trip to the Middle East that has been the latest highlight in an extraordinary career.

Wayne led a team of staff to serve 66 heads of state, including US President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania.

He said: “We had two weeks of intensive training to make sure we got everything perfect. It was like a military operation.

“Every head of state had a butler, and behind them was a waiter, so everyone was served at exactly the same time.

“It was a beautiful, precision and sophisticated service and it had to be perfect or it would have been a great embarrassment to the client.

“We had fantastic feedback from the guests and the staff got a lot out of it as well. It’s a huge honour to be able to serve people like that. You have to put politics aside and remember they are world leaders and everything that represents.”

But Wayne isn’t resting on his laurels and his business his going from strength-to-strength.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career and I’m in a position to be able to give something back to the community.

“I play for and sponsor Great Harwood Cricket Club so I’m giving back in that way.

“But I try to instil confidence in the staff we employ and inspire them to try to become a little bit better every day.”