AS THE whole world waits with bated breath for the Royal wedding, one Suffolk man is already in the know.

Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton who was brought up in Alderton, near Woodbridge, is helping Prince William and long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton plan the finer details of their nuptials, which will take place on Friday, April 29.

As one of Prince William’s most trusted aides he has been chosen as one of a tight-knit group of people to organise the wedding.

Taking on the role of chief planner, Mr Lowther-Pinkerton has been a close ally of both William and Harry since his appointment as their part-time Private Secretary in 2005.

Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, who lives in Suffolk with his wife and four children, has taken a pivotal role in the plans since the happy couple revealed they were engaged.

He announced the couple would marry at Westminster Abbey, a venue they chose for its “staggering beauty” and has been given the task of ensuring the Royal big day is a success.

He will be on hand to help make the happy couple’s dreams become reality while retaining Royal traditions. The 50-year-old former Special Forces officer began his professional relationship with the Royal family in 1986 when he was equerry to the late Queen Mother at Clarence House.

Before that, he trained at Sandhurst in 1979 and joined the Irish Guards but was attached to the SAS for a decade.

In 1989, Margaret Thatcher hand-picked him to lead two major SAS counter-narcotics operations in Colombia, where he trained police in surveillance methods to thwart the country’s influential drug lords.

He also served during the First Gulf War and Bosnia in 1994, becoming an unofficial adviser to the Government on Balkan issues after retiring from the Armed Forces in 1998.

Born in London and brought up in Suffolk, Mr Lowther-Pinkerton is understood to be a distant relative of Prince William as both are descended from William Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Duncannon.

Helping him plan the wedding is Helen Asprey, a member of the Royal jewellery family, who has been William and Harry’s personal assistant since 2000.