Arthur Edwards is an original Eastender, raised in Stepney, East London, his dad a lorry driver - also called Arthur - his beloved mum Dorothy running the family home. He left school at 15 and when Arthur senior died a year later and Dorothy went to work as an office cleaner to put food on the table, she made an inspired purchase that would transform her son's life. "She didn't want me to end up working in the docks like most of my schoolmates, so she saved up to buy me a £46 Rolleiflex camera. That was a fortune to her; I don't know how she did it," recalls Arthur junior, now 82 years old and celebrating five decades as a royal photographer.
Arthur never dreamed he would spend his life photographing the monarchy, hanging out in palaces and castles, and travelling to the most fascinating corners of the world (including regularly to Australia and New Zealand). It was a career that picked him, he says. As a teenager Arthur worked his way up from film-processing in a darkroom to assisting a top fashion photographer and then, in 1975, landed the job that made his career as a staff photographer for Rupert Murdoch's The Sun newspaper. He was thrilled. "I loved its cocky attitude and brash humour," he laughs.
In 1977, Arthur was sent on his first royal tour and the rest is history. "I went to Yugoslavia with the Prince of Wales [now King] and I really didn't know what I was doing," he chuckles. "When I see people on their first tour now, I try to help them as much as I can with all the rules, and the main rule is never, ever miss the bus. In fact, that's the only rule! On this tour, on the last day I missed the bus. I overslept, and I saw the bus driving away but, thank God, I managed to catch it at the first engagement."
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