Oakham and Barleythorpe beat officer PC Joe Lloyd will rub shoulders with royalty on Wednesday when he attends the Queen's garden party.

Joe's visit to Buckingham Palace if by invite-only and he will share the day with others who have been put forward by Lord-Lieutenants, societies and associations, government departments, local government, the military services, the church and other faiths.

Joe, who had previously been a soldier helping people in areas of conflict, made the transition to policing in 2001 and has now worked for Leicestershire Police for 18 years.

Starting his career in Melton Mowbray Joe worked his way up to an Incident Response Vehicle (IRV) driver on shift.

A six month attachment with the UK Border Agency working with officers and immigration officers tackling foreign national criminality, turned into a three year attachment, before Joe saw an advert for the beat officer job in Oakham.

Joe went for it and the rest, as they say, is history. He has now been here for nine years and has loved it.

Joe said: "It's been brilliant, the role has allowed me to continue exactly what I wanted to do when I finished as a soldier, serve my local community."

Describing the moment he found out he had been invited to the Queen's garden party, Joe said: "I had originally been informed by the Lord-Lieutenant, Dr Sarah Furness that she had put me forward for an invite due to my level of commitment to the local community which I was thrilled about, but I didn't really think much else of it.

"One morning, my son shouted through to me in the kitchen that I had some important looking post that was from Lord Chamberlain's Office.

"My initial response was the same as it is now – excitement. I feel extremely honoured to have been issued with an invite and now I just can't wait for the day to come."

Joe who will be sharing the day with his wife, added: "This is my first invitation to a really special event, I have only ever really been invited to local events, previously.

"I'm delighted to be going with my wife who is a secondary school headeacher, we both work really hard and I think this is great recognition of this."