Buckingham Palace banned 'coloured applicants' from jobs until at least 60s

Buckingham Palace banned “coloured immigrants or foreigners” from holding clerical roles in the royal family household until at least the late 1960s, The Guardian has reported.

The documents found at the UK’s National Archives read that Queen Elizabeth II’s chief financial manager informed civil servants in 1968 it was “not … the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners” to clerical roles in the royal household.

"Coloured applicants" were considered only for "ordinary domestic posts", it added.

The Guardian exclusive outlines how the Queen and the royal household were exempted by laws that "prevent race or sex discrimination" for four decades.

It was unclear when the practice ended as Buckingham Palace refused to answer questions concerning the ban. 

The palace said records from the 1990s show people from ethnic minority backgrounds worked for the Queen but that it did not keep employment race data from past decades.

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Exemptions 

England enacted laws in the 1960s to ensure employers did not discriminate on the grounds of race or ethnicity.

But since the Queen was exempted from those laws, women or people from ethnic minorities for her household were unable to lodge complaints in UK courts.

Buckingham Palace told The Guardian, there were separate hearings for such complaints but did not specify how those were conducted. 

Harry-Meghan racism row

The revelations come after Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry's explosive television interview with Oprah Winfrey. The couple had accused the royal family of racism.

The two have stepped back from their royal roles.

The Palace afterwards issued a statement saying that "some recollections may vary",  and vowed to look into the couple's assertion that an unidentified royal had asked how dark their unborn son Archie's skin would be.

The statement said the allegations were "concerning" and would be "taken very seriously", but added that it would be "addressed by the family privately".

Prince William has since defended the British royal family.

READ MORE: Meghan and Harry open up about royal split in Oprah interview

Shock at the claim prompted him, second-in-line to the throne and Harry's elder brother, to tell reporters in March that the family was "very much not" racist.

Buckingham Palace did not issue a statement about the Guardian article. Instead it announced the schedule of public events and community activities to mark the Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne with four days of festivities beginning with her ceremonial birthday parade on June 2, 2022.

The queen's reign began with the death of her father, King George VI, on February 6, 1952. 

She was formally crowned on June 2, 1953.

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