TWO men from West Devon made some royal acquaintances when they were invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace recently.

Tony Phillips, from Lifton, and Rodney Glanville, from Tavistock, were officially thanked by royalty for their dedication to the community.

Rodney, a volunteer for Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizen’s Advice for over a decade, was officially thanked for his years of volunteer service at the Queen’s Royal garden party at Buckingham Palace on June 5.

Rodney, who attended with his partner Patti, said: ‘We had the most enjoyable day and met some very deserving people. We also met the Queen, Prince William and Princess Eugenie.’

Rodney was among three of the Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizen’s Advice volunteers that were thanked by the Queen for giving their time for the advice charity.

Chief executive of Citizens Advice Vicki Rowe said: ‘We are most proud of our volunteers and wish to recognise the hours of dedication they put in to supporting others with their individual problems.’

Service delivery manager for the charity Viki Phillips said: ‘Without our fantastic and dedicated volunteers we would not be able to run our service. Rodney has volunteered with us for nearly 15 years, so nominating him for a palace invite was a small gesture to thank him for the incredible work he has done and the huge number of clients he has helped over that time.’

Tony Phillips, chairman of the trustees of Lifton Community Centre, was accompanied to the garden party with fellow trustee John Dyke.

Tony has been the chairman of the trustees during the planning and construction of the community centre.

Fellow trustee John Dyke, who accompanied Tony to the party, said: ‘He was invited to the Buckingham Palace garden party in recognition of his outstanding hard work and leadership during the Lottery Fund application and the securing of further funding from other sources to enable the project reach completion. Tony was asked by Prince Charles if he had managed to try the refreshments, to which he was able to say that he had had three plates, thank you!’