Former Newby and Scalby Primary School pupil meets members of Royal family

Charlotte Arrowsmith, 42 from Scarborough has had the opportunity to meet Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall after being invited to a Platinum Jubilee Garden Party as a representative of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Charlotte is a former Newby and Scalby Primary Student, and is now an actress at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, and has recently been named the first British Sign Language ambassador for Doncaster Deaf Trust.

Charlotte said: “Meeting Prince Charles and Camilla was a wonderful experience. He is lovely and very friendly and asked us questions about our roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

She was also “very excited.! It was a very surreal experience. Going inside after looking from afar on the outside most of my life and here we were, walking past lots of people in the long queues as we had a letter to meet the royal highness Prince Charles, so the police led the way after checking our IDs.

“We loved the whole day despite it raining down on our parade, we enjoyed it all nevertheless!”

The opportunity came about after the Prince and Duchess requested to personally meet Charlotte.

The actress attended the day with fellow deaf actor William Grint, and they were joined by two interpreters.

“We talked about Greg Doran, Artistic Director of the RSC who's now stepping down, and our experiences at the RSC, as well as about Covid-19.

“The garden party spread was glorious and eating lovely sandwiches and cakes was a treat.”

Charlotte was a pupil at Newby and Scalby Primary School in the mid-80s.

Charlotte said: “I want to encourage young deaf people to thrive and be ambitious. If my being a role model encourages that, then I am grateful for the platform to do so.”