Cruise ship passengers must have thought they had berthed in the wrong city at the sight of a Tower of London yeoman warder in the Octagon yesterday.
Patrick Nolan, of Tauranga, made a scarlet splash in the centre of Dunedin in his traditional yeoman uniform, which he wore while living and working in the tower. Mr Nolan was a career soldier in the New Zealand Army for 30 years, reaching the rank of warrant officer class one.
During that time he toured Singapore, Vietnam and the Middle East, before applying to become a yeoman warder in 1992.
''We were coming back home from the Middle East and we went to the tower when we were in London. There was a chap in a yeoman's uniform who seemed to be enjoying himself and I thought `that would do me'. So I wrote them a letter and they offered me the job. They did say later that they'd never had a colonial before,'' he recalled yesterday.
''Traditionally, we looked after the prisoners in the walls. But there are no prisoners there now, so the job is more about providing knowledge, tradition, security and finding lost parents.''
Mr Nolan (67) and his wife, Dawn (64), lived within the tower walls for the next 16 years, until 2008, when they returned to New Zealand.
''It was wonderful. We didn't even have a lock on the door and we were right in the middle of London. It was special walking around a place where so much history was made. The tower was built in 1078, which is 230 years before the Maori came to New Zealand.''
Mr Nolan will talk at the Montecillo War Veterans' Home today, before attending the Southern Sinfonia's The Last Night of the Proms tomorrow. Mrs Nolan, meanwhile, has the problem of finding something to wear to the concert which does not clash with her colourful husband.
''It will have to be something that tones in with his uniform,'' she sighed.
They couple return to Tauranga on Saturday.
The Last Night of the Proms is on at 7.30pm tomorrow in the Regent Theatre.
