The following story was told to me by Don Curtis of History moments.com. According to Don, this is a true story. I leave it to you, the reader, to decide for yourself.

“40 years ago I entered a room and the television was on. The program featured an interview with an elderly gentleman with a full shock of white hair. He was very British. I was inclined to turn the set off but something said ‘no, be patient.’”

The interviewer was recounting the storied life of the interviewee, medals won, honours earned…when the subject said that until age 13 life had been a terrible ordeal.

My father used to beat me regularly and my mother dare not interfere or he would beat her too. At age 13 I had had enough so I left home and never saw my parents again.

After the war I heard that my father had died and I felt relieved. I looked for my mother but never found her.

The Intervening Years

At 13, with little education, I found myself walking across a field one day where a circus had come to town and was setting up.

‘Hey you,’ I heard someone yell. Then I realized that I was the ‘you.’ The person yelling told me to hold on to a rope and I helped erect a tent. They hired me and I worked for the circus for a few years after that.

One day I was sitting reading. I loved to read but wasn’t very good at it. While reading I heard a voice say something like – “I see you like to read?” I answered that I did but wasn’t very good at it. The voice, when I looked up, came from a circus Clown. In all the time I knew that Clown I never saw his real face.

He said that he would give me a book to read and once I had finished reading it we would discuss it. I still have some of those original, leather-bound copies.

About a year and a half later, I was walking across the field when I heard my name called – “Nigel, Nigel, come here.”

The Clown told me that he had to leave the circus and that he believed in me and told me that he expected me to make something of myself one day.

I never forgot that because noone had ever told me that they believed in me.

When WW2 broke out, at age 18, I joined the RAF and flew Spitfires. I was in the Battle of Britain. One day, while sitting around the Mess with my flying buddies our Commanding Officer came in. We jumped to attention and he told us to relax and sit. Because of our heroism in the Battle of Britain we were to be presented with medals and he told us the details – where, when….

All dressed up, spit and polish, we were at attention when a limousine pulled up and King George himself stepped out to make the presentations. We looked straight ahead as he thanked us, on behalf of a grateful nation and pinned the medals on our chests.

When King George came to me he shook my hand and didn’t let go. Then I heard him say, “I knew you would make something of yourself Nigel!”

When I looked at him I saw his eyes and they were the eyes of the circus Clown.

Sometime later I received a handwritten letter from the Palace, from King George himself. In it he said that he owed me an explanation. In short, because he had such a stuttering problem his doctor had noticed that when he was with children, it went away. So he prescribed a stint as a circus Clown for therapy. King George also said that if I ever needed help, I had a friend at the Palace.

“That was 40 years ago that I heard that story and I always wondered if it was true,” said Curtis.

A friend of Don’s, who was a videographer, had done work for Sir Paul McCartney and had access to the Royal Family. A query about this story resulted in an official sealed letter from MI5 stating that the story was true and Curtis could use it if desired.

Prince William became aware that this might be turned into a video and he wanted to be part of the presentation and arranged for Don’s friend to visit the Palace to discuss the project. Don’s friend was flown over to England, picked up at the airport, taken to his hotel and told what time he would be picked up to visit the Prince.

When he arrived at the Palace Prince William, upon introduction, insisted that he be called Will.

As it occurred, Kate gave birth to Prince George and the project was put on hold. Curtis suggested that they ask Prince Charles if he would like to be involved. “He jumped at the opportunity,” said Curtis. Charles explained that this was his favourite story that “Mummy used to tell me.”

In Kingston, Ontario, Curtis found an actor to portray Nigel – very British, shock of white hair, formerly head of Drama at Queens U.

“After he read the script,” said Curtis,” when I asked if he would be interested in taking part, he said “he’d kill to do the part.”

To see a video representation of this story produced by Don Curtis, goto: www.doncurtis.ca and look under recent work.