LGBTQ, Black and Asian royal servants and attendants at court to be recognized for their contributions to the Royal Family in new Kensington Palace exhibition

Kensington Palace has announced an exhibition designed to reveal the untold lives of the staff who worked in the royal palaces more than 300 years ago.

The London-based exhibition will uncover the ‘forgotten stories’ of those who often go unrecognised, despite their tireless work for the Royal Family.

Untold Lives: A Palace at Work opens March 14 and honors contributions from a wide range of people across sexual orientation, gender and ethnicity.

For the first time, the spotlight will also shine on a wide range of roles that were central to royal life, from female rat killers, a job complete with a rat-embroidered uniform, to the ‘Groom of the Stool’, who was responsible for the care of the frost in the toilet.

‘Untold Lives: A Palace at Work will shine a spotlight on the overlooked people from all walks of life who have worked tirelessly – often behind the scenes – to preserve, protect and promote the monarch and the royal palaces,’ reads Historic Royal Palaces. page.

“Now, for the first time, the lives and contributions of these forgotten figures will be explored in a new exhibition created by the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces,” the website said.

One of those ‘forgotten’ roles is the ‘Keeper of Ice and Snow’ – a physically exhausting task of cutting ice so that royals can enjoy cold drinks, icy deserts and refreshments all year round.

In particular, the work of Frances Talbot will be examined – a woman responsible for managing the royal icehouse at Hampton Court Palace in the 1770s.

Her contribution to the palace and its guests will be remembered with the first exhibition of an ice saw.

Visitors will also be informed about the invaluable contributions of employees from around the world.

The contribution of black and Asian royal servants who arrived at the palaces for reasons including colonization and religious wars will also be explored through portraits and historical artefacts.

For example, there will be portraits of Abdullah, a wild cat keeper from India, and Mehmet von Könsigstreu, keeper of King George I’s secret wallet.

Mehmet, who was of Turkish descent, and his wife Marie Hedwig are considered one of the first interracial married couples at the Hanoverian court.

A portrait of Von Könsigstreu, keeper of King George I’s secret wallet, will be featured in the exhibition

A portrait of the Turkish servant Ernst August Mustapha von Misitri (better known as Mustapha) hanging on the king’s staircase

A valued servant of King Goerge I, Mehmet was an influential figure with personal access to the monarch.

While his portrait can be seen on the King’s steps, Untold Lives will further highlight his contribution.

Turkish servant Ernst August Mustapha von Misitri, better known as Mustapha, in a portrait by Godfrey Kneller – on loan from the Ömer Koç collection, will also be exhibited in Britain for the first time.

It comes after documents from the National Archives revealed that advisers banned “coloured immigrants or foreigners” from working as anything other than domestic servants in the royal family in the late 1960s.

The headlines uncovered by the Guardian also showed how Buckingham Palace negotiated controversial clauses that exempted the Queen and her household from laws preventing racial and gender discrimination.

These exceptions came into effect in the mid-1970s, when the Labor government introduced sweeping racial and sexual equality laws to eradicate discrimination in post-imperial Britain.

In the late 1960s, the Labor government attempted to eradicate racism by expanding racial discrimination laws, which prohibited racism only in public places, to also prohibit discrimination in employment or in services such as housing.

But the Queen and her household were excluded from those laws, making it impossible for women and ethnic minorities who work for Buckingham Palace to complain to the courts if they believe they have been discriminated against.

Any complaints would have been referred to the Home Secretary instead of the court. It is understood that these clauses remain in force to this day.