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If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you.
Each Monday, the Money blog speaks to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. Today, we speak to Lance Corporal Clark, 34, who serves in the King’s Life Guard, guarding the ceremonial gateways to Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace.
Our salaries rise… As a lance corporal in the British army, we earn approximately £34,000. This increases incrementally with each year of service and can increase with time away from home.
We get 39 days of holiday… At the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR) on ceremonial, our first timing is at 6.30am, and I am often finished by 4pm. On Saturday, I will work 6.30am to 12pm, with some Sundays/weekends off. We are entitled to 39 days of leave, which is often prescribed to us to fit in with the ceremonial operations in London. We are able to carry over up to 15 days each year, which is great if you haven’t been able to take it that year.
The army pays into a pension for us… As an employee, I can opt to contribute. The army contributes annually to your pension by adding 1/47th of your pensionable earnings into a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) pot. Retirement is a long way off!
It’s difficult to stay still… The state helmets you see are incredibly heavy and are quite painful. It is instilled discipline to not fidget and readjust. It becomes easier to maintain this discipline when in the public eye and in front of the sovereign. I try and think about how I look and hold myself on parade, which helps me remain rigid throughout.
While I enjoy working with horses… the day-to-day lifestyle can be repetitive and time-consuming. Horses need mucking out, exercise and grooming every day of the year. To add that on to all other aspects of the job role can be challenging.
One thing that will surprise you is… the time it takes to get kit ready for a parade…
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