When Cath Harvey, a 30-year-old military veteran, told her therapist that instead of attending her PTSD session she would like to go see the King, the psychologist agreed that it might be good therapy.
So, with medals on her chest from the two tours of Afghanistan that saw her medically retired from the Royal Australian Navy, the 59-year-old set out early with her neighbor for support.
Waiting in the sun for hours at the Sydney Opera House, Cath used her naval training to tactically identify the Man O’ War steps as the best position to get a royal handshake.
And at around 4.45pm, Cath hit the jackpot, when Queen Camilla picked her out of the crowd and then once again King Charles.
Bubbling with excitement after both encounters (a quinella virtually unheard of for a member of the crowd at a royal ride), Cath revealed what Camilla and Charles had told her.
‘When Camilla turned up I couldn’t believe it, but I said, ‘I want to thank you for everything you’ve done to look after us and for your service to my king,’ and she looked a little surprised.
“But she shook my hand and said, ‘That’s very nice of you to say, thank you very much.’
“He has very soft hands.”
When 30-year-old military veteran Cath Harvey left her PTSD therapy session to see the King, never in her wildest dreams did she think she would meet both royals.
Queen Camilla and King Charles walk down the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
Charles sees Cath’s medals and the two talk about the navy.
After the Queen’s greeting, the royal couple turned and stood for a while while the primary school children danced in their uniforms.
Cath said she saw the King spying on her medals near the end of the ball, after which she approached him and asked: ‘Are those your medals?’
“I said yes and when he shook my hand I said, ‘I’ve just retired after 30 years of service to the Queen and then to King and country’ and he said, ‘In the Navy?’ and I said ‘yes’.
He is a sailor and he looked up with a smile of recognition.
“At that point, the security guy almost had to break my thumb to stop me from shaking Charles’s hand.”
After Cath’s double royal flush, she pointed out to the crowd things only a navy veteran and former chief petty officer could do as the royals moved from the Opera House to Sydney Harbor for the naval review.
The HMAS Arunta was waiting for Charles and Camilla to pass on a smaller ship, the Admiral Hudson, and on the upper deck of the Arunta were sailors ready to “take off their hats and three cheers for King”.
Cath thanks the Queen for all her support and service to King Charles over the years, earning a warm response from Camilla.
Cath Harvey, a 30-year-old naval veteran, shows off the medals she wore that attracted the royal couple.
Cath also explained that the helicopter flying overhead carrying a huge Australian flag was a naval helicopter, and the crowd cheered in response to each flyover.
Cath Harvey told Daily Mail Australia that she had retired from the navy in February after three decades of service and that her medical retirement for post-traumatic stress disorder had been caused by the stress of two tours, between 2015 and 2016.
It’s just constant, constant adrenaline because you’re always alert and then there are the incidents.”
Based in Kabul, Cath earned one of the medals that brought King Charles to the attention of the U.S. Army, a commendation for his mentoring of U.S. Navy sailors on his second tour for Afghanistan.
The other medals are his Australian Operations Medal for two tours, his Long Service Medal, his Australian Defense Medal and his NATO Medal.
Since medically retired from military service, Cath recently had his medals tattooed on his leg, along with the dates of his naval career.
Naval personnel who worked with her in Afghanistan and Australia during her long career in the Royal Australian Navy affectionately referred to Cath as “Chief Harvey”.
Cath has been treasurer and now vice-president of her local RSL club in Branxton, in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, and works in her region helping older people, running a women’s shed, making ‘boomerang bags’ for shoppers and making quilts for Aussie Hero Quilts. .
The neighbor who accompanied Cath in supporting her on the royal journey, Virginia Upward, says she is greatly appreciated and admired, and has used her own traumas and experiences to help others.
Of her bombing on Charles and Camilla’s last day of public outings in Australia, Cath said: ‘It’s very difficult to get out of the defense force. Maybe it can feel like a chapter has closed.’
“I’m absolutely thrilled.”