THE DUKE of York will be joining local tailor Geoffrey Golding to celebrate his company’s golden anniversary celebration in St Albans next month.

Prince Andrew has been a customer of Mr Golding (pictured), whose company G. D. Golding (Tailors) is in Hatfield Road, St Albans, for the over 20 years.

His agreement to be guest of honour at the company celebration at Sopwell House Hotel on Thursday, May 23, was described by Mr Golding, 69, the owner and managing director of the company, as, “an unbelievable honour for the business and the City of St Albans.”

At the age of 19 in 1963 Mr Golding, who could neither read nor write, opened a tailor’s shop in St Albans. Against all the odds, he turned it into such a successful business that in 2001, it was awarded the Queen’s Royal Warrant for services to the Royal Household.

An ambitious Mr Golding built up the business so it became a pre-eminent tailor for officers of 50 regiments and corps of the British Armed Forces.

Recalling his humble beginnings as the son of a home-based alterations tailor, Mr Golding revealed that he could not even write out a cheque when he started up on his own account after training in Savile Row.

He explained: “Because of my dyslexia, I could not spell numbers but I solved it by asking my brother to write them out in the back of my first cheque books so I could copy them whenever I needed to.

“I have come a long way since those days but the difficulty with words has never left me.”

The 50th anniversary celebration will be in aid of the charity Dyslexia Action.