King’s ‘dashing’ equerry announces engagement

Kilted soldier who won social media cult following will marry PR boss, 33, who previously worked at Palace

Lt Col Johnny Thompson, the King’s popular equerry, has announced his engagement to a PR executive.
The 40-year-old, who attracted a cult social media following after turning heads in his kilt, is to marry Olivia Lewis, the daughter of Simon Lewis, a former communications secretary to Elizabeth II and director of communications for Gordon Brown in Downing Street.
The pair are said to have met when Ms Lewis, 33, was working for the King and Queen. She was seconded from the Cabinet Office to the couple’s foreign and Commonwealth team from April 2021 until January 2023.
Last December, Ms Lewis, an Edinburgh University graduate, joined the family firm, Lewis Advisors, shortly after it was founded by her father and her elder brother Thomas, 35.
She had previously worked for Fleishman Hillard, the PR agency, and Chatham House, the international affairs think tank. In 2017, she was included on PR Week’s “30 under 30” list.
It was revealed in February that Lt Col Thompson was involved in a new relationship, two years after separating from his wife, the mother of his son.
At around the same time, it emerged that he had been promoted to the role of senior equerry to the King, a less public-facing role that involves helping to organise the King’s private affairs.
The decision to extend his secondment from the Army, in which he serves with the 5th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland, was a relatively unusual one.
But it was considered an indication of how highly valued he had become by the King and Queen.
“The King relies on him heavily and he is a vital member of the team,” a royal source said at the time.
“This promotion is a great vote of confidence.”
Traditionally, equerries are seconded from the Armed Forces for three years, with each service taking its turn to provide an officer.
In February, the King appointed Capt Kat Anderson, 33, an officer with the Royal Artillery, as the first female equerry to a sovereign.
Capt Anderson, an assistant equerry, works alongside the King’s equerry, Lieutenant Commander Will Thornton, 37, a Royal Navy helicopter pilot.
Last year, Lt Col Thompson, from Morpeth, Northumberland, was included on Tatler’s Social Power Index, drawn up to show “where the real power lies in British society”.
The magazine noted that he had found himself increasingly branded “the dashing equerry”.
“The erstwhile Major Johnny has a fabulous sense of humour and looks as good in a suit as he does a kilt,” it said.
“It is from within palace walls that the King’s equerry wields his unique brand of quiet, charming power, but he’s spotted where it counts, at the Coronation or the opening of the Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery in Fitzrovia, to which he wore a bunny tie and charmed India Rose James.”
Videos of Lt Col Thompson arriving at Buckingham Palace following the King’s accession in September 2022, and assisting the monarch with his robes during his Coronation in May 2023 went viral.
However, he did not enjoy the attention, The Telegraph understands, and prefers his new, lower-profile office-based role.
Lt Col Thompson had previously worked alongside the late Queen and was hailed a national treasure as he found himself front and centre of events surrounding her death, escorting Liz Truss, then prime minister, to meet the King, and later bringing Rishi Sunak to Buckingham Palace to be appointed prime minister.