A FEMALE Beefeater has led the Ceremony of the Keys, the locking of the Tower of London, for the first time in the ritual’s 700-year history.
AJ Clark, 50, can perform the task after becoming the first female yeoman warder promoted to sergeant.
Other women have played a role in past ceremonies. But only sergeants carry the King’s Keys.
AJ told The Sun: “I still pinch myself.
“It’s just fabulous.
“There is so much history and it is such an honour to be part of it.”
The ritual dates to 1340 after King Edward III arrived unannounced and was furious he could enter unchallenged.
The ceremony lasts from 9.53pm to 10pm.
We watched as AJ emerged from the Byward Tower — where Anne Boleyn lived before her 1536 execution — with a lantern and the keys.
She walked alone to the Bloody Tower to meet her escort of four Irish Guards.
They marched to the Middle Gate then the Byward Gate, where AJ closed and locked the huge wooden doors.
Back at the Bloody Tower — where King Edward V, 12, and brother Richard, nine, were murdered — a sentry challenged AJ: “Halt! Who goes there?”
AJ replied she had “King Charles’ keys” and her group was allowed to pass.
She gave the keys to the King’s representative, before the playing of the Last Post.
AJ, of Burnley, spent 24 years in the Army before becoming a Beefeater in 2017.
She lives in the Tower with her husband and three dogs.
She added: “It is the shortest military ceremony in history, but for us the most important.
“Being a yeoman warder is magical.”
