IT’S NOT every day you get to share your biggest hobby with a member of the Royal Family.

But last Thursday, 16-year-old volunteer Eirian Edwards had the honour of guiding the Duke of Gloucester around Chapel Bay Fort.

Eirian has volunteered at the Angle museum site every Sunday since he was 13, and his keen interest in military history was clear as he showed His Royal Highness the military fortress.

He pointed out the 19th Century gun emplacements built to defend the Milford Haven waterway, as well as a massive 18-ton remounted as part of a restoration program.

“I was very nervous,” said Eirian, who has ambitions of being a paramedic with the Royal Army Medical Corp.

“I’ve done the tour for 30 people before, but never felt like this. It was good fun though.”

Eirian said the Duke asked lots of questions, and as patron of the Fortress Study Group and a Royal Honorary Colonel with the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) ‘knew his stuff’.

George Geear, who co-owns Chapel Bay Fort with his wife Emma, then introduced volunteer Jack Ferguson, who brought to life the artillery and ordnance displays housed in the museum.

HRH was also able to view the fort’s main underground magazine and ‘meet’ Edward George – a life-sized figure dressed in the uniform of a Royal Artillery Gunner of the 1890s.

The Duke, accompanied by Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed Sara Edwards, also met the Fort’s team of loyal volunteers and chairman of its charity, and former county councillor, John Allen-Mirehouse.