Trainer Charlie Rumbol has been recognised for his dedication to boxing with an invite to Buckingham Palace.

Rumbol, 72, and wife Jackie, 69, attended a garden party hosted by the Duchess of Gloucester.

They were invited by the Not Forgotten Association, a British Armed Forces charity, to mark 45 years as a coach.

Rumbol, who lives in Borden, thought it was a joke when he returned a phone call from the charity.

“I thought someone was winding me up,” said the veteran trainer, who runs Rumbles Boxing Academy on the Eurolink Trading Estate in Sittingbourne.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Buckingham Palace and when I lived in London I thought, ‘Please, God, one day I’ll get there’.

“It was a great day out.

“As long as I live, I’ll never forget it.

“I’ve had some lovely days out and that was one of the best.

“We had some lovely photos taken and everyone said how immaculate we looked, even the police.

“The Duchess of Gloucester was there, and her husband, and there were loads of celebrities. It was a really fantastic day.”

Rumbol has helped hundreds - probably thousands - of youngsters over his years in boxing.

He ran St Mary’s ABC in Chatham after moving to Medway from his native south London, where he had a pub off the Old Kent Road.

A haulage business fell by the wayside, such was his dedication to boxing, and the Rumbols moved to Borden 20 years ago.

After handing over the reins at St Mary’s, Rumbol, who went on to work as a taxi driver in London, formed a new club in Sittingbourne.

“I’ve had international boxers, loads of schoolboy champions, junior ABA champions, ABA finalists, senior ABA champions, over the years,” said Rumbol.

“What I do is take off the streets and give them training.”

The Rumbols celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in April with a cruise.

They make quite a team even though Jackie doesn’t like boxing.

“I’ve been a boxing widow for 40-odd years,” she said.

“Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, off he goes and holidays have to be cancelled because of boxing championships and Saturdays and Sundays he’s often at shows.

“What people have got to remember is he doesn’t get any reward, he does it all off his own back.

“We had a haulage business that suffered because he cut short his day where he had to rush back for boxing.

“He’s taken kids who’ve walked off the streets who couldn’t hold their hands up and had a lot of success.

“The amount of parents who’ve said over the years, the only thing they can threaten their kids with, if they don’t behave, is you’re not going boxing and we’ll tell Charlie.

“He’s kept a lot of kids in check and the parents have been very grateful, and we’ve got kids now whose parents he used to train.

“They follow him and he’s just got a way with the kids.

“He remembers every kid’s name who comes in the gym - I can’t.

“A lot of the kids that come down, if they didn’t have boxing, they’d be out on the estates causing mischief but that’s him, that’s what he does and that’s what he continues to do.

“I’m not going to lie, I don’t like boxing but I’ll do whatever he needs help with.”