For John Sinclair, the disappointment is immense. The ax fell last night, December 18, 2024, when Buckingham Palace unveiled the new list of royal warrants granted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Not listed is HM Sheridan’s Butcher’s, which John co-owns, located 12 minutes from Balmoral Castle on Bridge Street, one of the main streets in Ballater village. She lost her Royal Warrant, a true label of excellence, and for him it is an almost personal tragedy.
A long history of sausages
In 1969, the whole world discovered with the broadcast on the BBC of the documentary Royal Family Prince Philip’s passion for barbecue. The Duke of Edinburgh loved, during Scottish summers spent with family at Balmoral, grilling sausages on the banks of the River Dee. To the point that in the tribute to his grandfather, unveiled upon his death in 2021, Prince Harry calls him “the master of barbecue”.
Official supplier to the royal household since 1987, HM Sheridan butchery had the honor of being awarded two royal warrants: one in the name of Queen Elizabeth II, the other from her heir Prince Charles. The house was quite proud that its “special sausage” recipe had conquered the palaces of the Windsor clan, and sometimes provided lamb for large family gatherings. She had even received a final order from the Queen just a few days before her death…
But after almost four decades of trust renewed every five years (royal mandates are a priori granted for five years, but can be withdrawn before if the quality declines), Charles III chose to put an end to this old relationship. Question of criteria.
Charles, the Green King
The sovereign does not joke with what he puts on his plate. If his treatment for cancer has pushed him to review some of his eating habits – he now takes a break at lunchtime to snack on something – Charles III has not forgotten his basic values and principles. Deeply committed to the defense of nature and the environment, he makes sure to eat local, seasonal and of course, organic as much as possible. But this is where the problem lies: the meat from Sheridan is not 100% organic. A point on which the king does not compromise, as his son-in-law Tom Parker Bowles explained to us, who considers him “a hero of the food issue”.
This point is the only one that John Sinclair sees to explain the downgrading of his butchery. “It’s very difficult to get 100% organic meat here, we are in the middle of nowhere” he regrets in the columns of Daily Mail. The house tried to appeal this decision, by writing a request to the palace, in vain. Times are changing, the monarchy is evolving, will the Ballater butchery be able to do the same? This would be one of the small victories of the reign of Charles III, the king of organic products.
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