The singer Tom Jones has been knighted at Buckingham Palace for services to music. He was invested as Thomas Woodward, his real name and the one under which he began singing for relatives as a boy in the south Wales valleys in the 1940s. According to the BBC transmissions of 29 March, the 65-year-old miner’s son said accepting the knighthood was a "great and humbling honour". Speaking after the investiture, he said: "It is fantastic. It was lovely to see the Queen again.I love seeing the Queen and I have always been a royalist. She is lovely and she still is lovely. She has got a great smile and her whole face lights up when she smiles."
Sir Tom, who first met the Queen at a Royal Charity performance in 1966, was dressed in tails and sported a goatee beard when he knelt beneath the sword on Wednesday. He was accompanied by his son, daughter and granddaughter. The singer was awarded an OBE in 1999, an event he described as "very special".
Sir Tom said the Queen remembered his performance in 1966, and asked him how long he had been in show business. "I told her 41 years successfully and she said to me that I had given a lot of people a lot of pleasure."
He said: "Today is just tremendous. When you first come into show business and you get a hit record, it is the start of something. "As time goes on, it just gets better. This is the best thing that I have had. It is a wonderful feeling, a heady feeling. "Sometimes you just can’t believe it, you think you have been dreaming." Sir Tom has no plans to retire-he has a new dance record out next month and is touring in the UK in October and November.
There are a number of pictures of the event posted to the BBC gallery