A trooper found hanging just days after walking alongside Queen Elizabeth’s coffin at her state funeral had been told off for failing to properly clean his ceremonial kit, an inquest has heard.
Jack Burnell-Williams, 18, had struggled with the workload in the Household Cavalry and was said to have ‘absolutely hated’ his posting in London.
His girlfriend, Molly Holmes, told an inquest that one of the worst parts of the job for him had been making sure his kit was immaculate, and he would often have to re-do it.
‘He got stressed out about that because it had to be pristine,’ she told Inner West London Coroners Court.
‘It always had to be immaculate. He spent a lot of time on his kit, and it was never good enough.
‘He always got in trouble from the Corporal of the Horses about his kit.’
Asked whether Mr Burnell-Williams was punished, she added: ‘It was more a telling off, and he’d have to redo them.’
The young trooper was found hanging by his roommate at Hyde Park Barracks in London on September 28, 2022 – nine days after he appeared alongside other members of the Household Cavalry at the monarch’s state funeral, watched by 29 million people in the UK alone.
Trooper Jack Burnell-Williams (pictured) was 18 when he was pronounced dead at Hyde Park Barracks in London – less than a fortnight after he walked in Her Majesty’s funeral procession in 2022
Images from the Queen’s funeral procession showed him in his ceremonial uniform as he escorted the monarch on her final journey, along with other members of the Household Cavalry
The inquest is expected to run for most of this week and will hear from some of the youngsters’ British Army colleagues and superiors, in front of Assistant Coroner Bernard Richmond KC.
In court are Mr Burnell-Williams’s mother, Laura Williams, 47, and 45-year-old father Dan Burnell.
Ms Williams has previously said that she hopes lessons can be learnt from her son’s passing, especially regarding how the Army treats young people’s mental health.
They listened as Ms Holmes explained how she had been his girlfriend for around two years, after they met online and were then posted to their initial training in Harrogate.
Mr Burnell-Williams, from Bridgend in Wales, had wanted to go into the Welsh Guards so he could travel and carry out field work, but he didn’t get the grades.
It meant that after Harrogate, he ended up posted to Windsor and then Knightsbridge, but he and Ms Holmes remained a couple.
At the time of his death, he was a member of the Blues and Royals, part of the elite Household Cavalry, with duties including guarding the monarch.
Ms Holmes said that when posted to Windsor for phase two of his training, Mr Burnell-Williams was introduced to the horses, which he accepted, although it wasn’t what he wanted to do.
‘He said everyone was very nice and he got on well with them. He liked his instructors,’ she said.
But when his training continued, and he was sent to barracks in Knightsbridge in 2022, Mr Burnell-Williams completely changed, she said.
‘At first he didn’t know what to expect, but as it went on he absolutely hated it,’ Ms Holmes said, adding that it was the parade parts of his job he most loathed.
One weekend, he had offered to do extra shifts in the hope he’d be given time off the following weekend to go and visit her, but his leave ended up being cancelled.
An inquest heard that the teen had struggled with the workload in the Household Cavalry and was said to have ‘absolutely hated’ his posting in London
Instead, she went to visit him and was shocked that he worked from 5am until 8pm or 9pm at Horse Guards Parade.
‘He said that was all the time,’ Ms Holmes added. ‘He said it was because he was young.
‘He was always so tired that we didn’t have much time to talk or do anything in the evenings.
‘He’d just go straight to bed.’
From September 21 onwards, she told the court he was ‘very stressed and very tired, a lot more than usual’.
‘He just kept saying he needed a break and it was a lot of work and that he was tired,’ Ms Holmes added.
The person she had known during his early training to the one at Knightsbridge towards the end of his life was a ‘completely different person’, she added, although she said she didn’t feel he was particularly singled out.
Mr Burnell-Williams had asked for a transfer and expected to get it, she added.
Days before his death, he had been sent to Horse Guards Parade for a day of ceremonial duties, and it was then unexpectedly extended.
It led to him threatening to ‘go AWOL’, Ms Holmes said.
‘I told him you can’t do that, that it wasn’t right… It was out of character,’ she added.
The teenager poses in this undated photograph in his military uniform
Friend Col Maxwell met Mr Burnell-Williams during his training in Windsor and later lived in the same corridor as him at the barracks in central London.
As time went on, he said he noticed that Mr Burnell-Williams changed.
‘He became fairly apathetic. He didn’t care as much about his job,’ he said.
‘In Windsor, he was keen to impress; in Knightsbridge, he was just trying to get by.
‘I think the pressures of the job were just starting to get to him.’
But he said he didn’t feel at the time that he was struggling more than other young recruits, who often took on or were given more work.
It was also ‘fairly common’ for recruits at Mr Burnell-Williams’ stage to ask for transfers because of the ‘very difficult’ work-life balance, he added.
This was made harder by the fact that speaking to welfare officers about concerns made other soldiers see you ‘as a Jack’ – an Army term for a selfish person – as it gave other people more work, he said.
Family pictures show the teenager beaming proudly in his ceremonial uniform while on horseback in London, where his mum and dad regularly went to visit him.
The Queen’s funeral, following her death at Balmoral on September 8, 2022, was watched by 29 million people in the UK.
The inquest continues.
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