From proposing marriage to serving the King in 15 minutes: How royal guard who popped the question to his girlfriend before dashing to Trooping the Colour parade carried out his secret mission with military precision

A royal guard told how he planned his marriage proposal with military precision - before dashing off to take part in the King’s birthday parade.

Colour Sergeant Jacob Lockwood, 33, broke off from preparations for Trooping of the Colour to bravely get down on one knee and pop the question to longterm girlfriend Ruth O'Hara.

And to the delight of cheering onlookers it was a case of mission accomplished when stunned Ruth, 25, joyfully accepted his proposal.

The heart warming exchange created an internet storm when one passer by captured the moment on camera and posted it one social media.

Jacob told MailOnline: ‘It was the icing on the cake on a very special day.

‘I was a bit nervous beforehand. Thankfully she said yes. She was absolutely gobsmacked. She had absolutely no idea I was going to do it.’

Jacob, who has served in the military for 15 years, told how he had been working with the Household Cavalry in the run up to the event and was among military personnel organising the collection of horses for senior officers.

He had arranged to meet up briefly with Ruth outside Buckingham Palace after she had travelled to London from their home in Windsor to watch the parade.

He said: ‘Over the past three years I have been taking part in the parade and we’ve met up to have our picture taken outside Buckingham Palace beforehand. It’s become a tradition.

‘We planned to redo the picture this year. Ruth had no idea what I was planning.’

Jacob - who has been dating Ruth for five years - was captured on camera as he went down on one knee and made his unexpected proposal.

His astonished and delighted girlfriend gasped: 'Oh my God!' as he then quickly placed a ring onto her finger and said 'I love you'.

He was then heard asking 'Does it fit?' as Ruth slipped on the engagement band.

A small crowd, mainly made up of police officers on duty for the ceremony, applauded the newly engaged couple as some onlookers shouted 'congratulations'.

Then, after taking a moment to hug his future wife, Jacob revealed he needed to make a dash for the Royal parade.

Beckoning towards the Royal residence in the background, he quipped: 'Right, I've got to get into the Palace. The King's going to be waiting.'

Describing the moment Jacob said: ‘After the picture. I dropped my stick so that I could take the ring out of my pocket.

‘You can see that she thought I dropped it accidentally as she went down to pick the stick up for me.

‘I then got down on one knee. She had absolutely no idea and just started screaming.

‘I said I had to go because the King will be waiting. Then, 15 minutes later, I was stood looking at him as I was there collecting the horses for some of the Household Division officers.’

Describing the surprise proposal Jacob said: ‘I decided on Wednesday that I was going to do it on the day of the King’s birthday parade because I thought it would be really special.

‘I had a friend come and take a picture for me and she videoed it.’

He told how he knew he was working within a short time frame and his carefully planned mission was almost thwarted when Ruth was delayed on her journey.

He said: ‘She got a bit delayed coming into town. Literally as she arrived they closed the crossings because the parade was about to start coming back to Buckingham Palace.

‘I just absolutely panicked thinking ‘Oh God no. We’ve missed the opportunity’.

‘While she was behind me talking to the girl that took the pictures for us I quickly got the ring out of my pocket, showed it to the policeman and gestured to my girlfriend behind me.

‘I said "Can we just stand in that archway there and have a picture?" He just kind of waved us through.

‘I quickly popped the question and then got back to my duties.

‘The location couldn’t have been any better. It was quite nice there were all the police around and noone else really so. It was personal but nice and grand outside the palace. It couldn’t have turned out better.

‘I was a bit down about the weather thinking it’s such a flipping miserable day and just about five minutes before we were stood on the Mall it was quite grey.

‘We moved round to where I did it, which was out of the view of the public.

‘Then suddenly there was a parting of the clouds and the sun shone through. We had a couple of minutes of sunshine while I proposed then it went really grey and it started raining again.

‘It was like the heavens just gave a break before opening - just in time for me to pop the question. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Jacob told his grandmother had helped out in the plans after passing on her own engagement ring.

He said: ‘It was my grandmother’s engagement ring that she gave me about a year ago when I told her that I knew Ruth was definitely going to be the one for me for the rest of my life.’

Jacob told how he had no idea the proposal would attract so much attention.

He said: One of the people with a camera heard my girlfriend screaming and started videoing. Somebody messaged me saying congratulations on the engagement. I couldn’t understand how they found out.

‘I said ‘How the hell do you know? And they told me ‘You’re on the Daily Mail Online.’

After the event the couple met up to start their own celebrations.

Jacob said: ‘She came and met me at Hyde Park Barracks. We had a quick drink in the corporal’s mess then went home and joined her parents and we had a bit of a celebration at their house in Suffolk afterwards.’