When Carlton Wilkinson began working at the Hamilton Princess - long before there was a 'Fairmont' in its name - Bermudian tourism was enjoying its golden era. Tuxedos and ball gowns were the norm in the Island's hotels and the only cruise ship passengers in sight were those on ocean liners like the Queen of Bermuda and the Ocean Monarch. Much has changed in the intervening 45 years, altering the Island at times beyond recognition. One thing, however, has remained very much the same: Mr. Wilkinson has yet to take a single sick day.

"I have no answer for it," he says, when asked how he has managed it, "I jump out of bed just as lively as I get into bed!"

Now, after a total of 51 years in the hospitality industry, Mr. Wilkinson has been recognised for a lifetime of service to tourism. He was one of eight Bermudians named this month in the Queen's Birthday Honours to receive a Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour. Yet, for a modest and soft-spoken man, the award came as something of a shock.

"When I received a message from the Governor's secretary to call Government House, I thought they wanted to borrow extra linen," says Mr. Wilkinson, who as chief valet oversees the hotel's dry-cleaning operations and four staff.

His long career in the industry actually started in the late '50s at the old Castle Harbour Hotel.

During a job sweeping floors at a Hamilton dry cleaner, Mr. Wilkinson discovered a talent for pressing shirts and suits and soon took up an offer to work at the east-end hotel.

Over the years, suits of celebrities like the television host Ed Suillivan and countless wedding gowns have passed through his care, but Mr. Wilkinson has yet to receive a complaint.

"The satisfaction you get is when the guest is treated well by people who know what they're doing."

In a mark of just how much things have changed, Mr. Wilkinson admits he sees fewer suits and ball gowns these days - with most tourists now preferring the casual dress code of T-shirts and shorts.

"It used to be that you couldn't step foot into a hotel dining room after six o'clock without a jacket," he says, recalling an era when guests were entertained on Thursday 'formal nights' by famed local acts like the Talbot Brothers and Hubert Smith.

Of course, after 45 years in the business Mr. Wilkinson has managed to accumulate a story or two.

"Yes, we've had a few escapades," he said, before recounting the time drunken students on a college week vacation managed to smuggle a cow on to the fifth floor of the Castle Harbour Hotel.

Mr. Wilkinson, who for many years bred dogs in his spare time, was also responsible for finding the hotel's unofficial mascot - a cat named Tiger.

"One day this cat just appeared on the scene. I took to feeding him and taking him to the vet," he said. The cat proved popular with guests, and was 'adopted' by the hotel where it lived for the next 20 years before its death.

When asked what kept him at the same hotel for so long, Mr. Wilkinson's answer is simple: "It's the people," he says, noting that many of his colleagues have been working with him for over 30 years, "I couldn't do it all by myself, we do it together."

Mr. Wilkinson and a few others form the old guard at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess - a generation of workers whose loyalty is hard to come by among the younger employees. In fact, according to the hotel's head of human resources Kellianne Smith, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts only has long-service awards for up to 40 years - an oversight she would like to see rectified.

Having found a successful career in the hospitality industry, Mr. Wilkinson is keen to dissuade young Bermudians of negative assumptions about working in hotels.

"When you talk about going into hospitality they think you have to be a maid or a waiter. But I tell them you work here as if in a small city…there are so many different fields to chose from."

Asked for his thoughts on retirement, Mr. Wilkinson insists he is in no hurry.

"I'm not ready to go sit down in a rocking chair, not yet. I feel fine and like doing what I do."