The Duchess of Cambridge has finally met a pensioner she had spoken to on the phone while secretly volunteering through a Check In And Chat scheme.

Kate met full-time carer 85-year-old Len Gardner, and was introduced to his delighted wife Shirley, as she and the Duke of Cambridge stopped off in Batley on their three-day tour around the country by royal train.

Children and pensioners must have wondered what was going on when dozens of police officers turned up at their cul-de-sac in the West Yorkshire town.

All was revealed when a car pulled up with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge inside.

The duchess first rang Mr Gardner in May through the NHS Volunteer Responder Check In And Chat scheme aimed at making sure elderly people were not lonely.

They wrote letters to each other and she had even sent him a pasta machine after he said he liked cooking.

Accompanied by the brass band, William and Kate walked to Mr Gardner’s house, where he helped his wife, who has dementia, to come outside.

Both couples stood chatting and even had a little dance as the band played.

After the couple had left, and before heading in for a celebratory cup of tea, Mr Gardner told Sky News about his lockdown chats with Kate.

“It was like talking to you,” he said. “Just ordinary talk after the first sentence, which was ‘how do I address you?’, because I like to do things right. She said ‘just call me Catherine’.”

He said the couple seemed “very interested in people and that’s a very good thing, especially with the virus at the moment”.

“To come out to a place like this and talk to people like us, it’s wonderful.”

And it seems that Mr Gardner and Kate will keep in touch.

He said: “They are such busy people but I just said ‘would it be alright if I write to you again, if I drop you a line every now and again?’ and she said ‘I’d be thrilled to bits because I’m delighted to read your letters’.”

William and Kate’s train tour is intended to shine a light on all those little acts of kindness that have taken place up and down the country during the coronavirus pandemic.

The couple set off from London Euston on Sunday evening for the 1,250-mile UK tour.

It is a series of visits to celebrate some of the good that has come out of a terrible year for many, with surprises that they hope will make people smile, just like Mr Gardner.

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