Britain remembers Princess Diana

Diana’s ‘life & works’ marked on her 20th death anniversary

LONDON, Aug 30, (Agencies): Princes William and Harry paid tribute to their late mother Princess Diana on Wednesday for the 20th anniversary of her death as wellwishers left candles and flowers outside the gates of her former London residence.

Handwritten notes on bouquets left in front of Kensington Palace read: “Diana, a brave princess, your sons have your courage” and “Dear Diana, our country was so very lucky to have you”.

“I came 20 years ago with my mother, and my son, who is now 21,” said teaching assistant Stephanie Davinson, 52, after leaving a bouquet.

“I’m doing it for her sons, they’re following in her footsteps, I think there’s a lot of her in them”.

Pictures were left of Diana, her children and grandchildren, while hardcore fans of the princess brought a cake bearing her picture.

“It doesn’t matter now or in say 100 years, it will still be the same kinds of feelings towards her, in a really good way,” said Australian tourist Clint Wilde.

William and Harry toured Diana’s memorial garden at the palace later on Wednesday together with representatives from the charities she supported, including those helping AIDS sufferers and children in need.

“The engagement will allow the Princes to pay tribute to the life and work of their mother the day before the 20th anniversary of her death,” said a spokeswoman for Kensington Palace where the princes now live.

Reflect

“Together, they will reflect on the significant achievements of the Princess, and the legacy of her work which continues to resonate with so many today,” she said.

Diana’s untimely death two decades ago on Thursday shocked the world.

“She was this ray of light in a fairly grey world,” 35-year-old William, her eldest son and second in line to the throne, said in a new documentary for the anniversary.

The life of Diana — a shy, teenage aristocrat who suddenly became the world’s most famous woman — and her tragic death at 36 still captivates millions across the globe.

Two decades on, her sons William and Prince Harry only now feel able to talk publicly about her death, a seismic event which continues to resonate in the monarchy and British society.

Diana died in a car crash in Paris in the early hours of Aug 31, 1997, along with Dodi Fayed, her wealthy Egyptian film producer boyfriend of two months, and a drink-impaired, speeding driver Henri Paul, who was trying to evade paparazzi.

No public events are planned for Thursday.

The tributes outside Kensington Palace were nothing like the sea of flowers laid in the week between her death and her funeral: an outpouring of national grief that commentators are still grappling with.

William and Harry have spoken of struggling to comprehend the “alien” wave of public mourning among people who didn’t know their mother, at a time when they, aged 15 and 12, could not process their loss.

Britain, the nation of the stiff upper lip, was now wailing and hurling flowers at a hearse.

Strains

Diana married Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, in 1981, but their marriage collapsed under the strains of public duty and their incompatibility.

The monarchy’s shining star, now a fashion icon, humanitarian and selfstyled “queen of hearts”, found herself cast out of the royal family in the 1996 divorce she did not want but had made inevitable with an unprecedented and explosive television interview.

With all her mistakes and frailties played out in public, Britons felt wrapped up in Diana’s life and the complexity in her character still fascinates.

A testament to her enduring impact, British newspapers have been filled this month with special pull-outs and magazine articles covering all facets of Diana’s life.

William has said he tells his children, Prince George, four, and Princess Charlotte, two, about the Granny Diana they will never meet.

“When you have something so traumatic as the death of your mother when you’re 15, it will either make or break you,” William said in the “Diana, 7 Days” BBC documentary.

Meanwhile, French doctor Frederic Mailliez, the first physician on the scene of Princess Diana’s fatal car accident in Paris 20 years ago, says he gave first aid to the victims before knowing who he was treating. Mailliez was off-duty when he drove into the Alma road tunnel on Aug 31, 1997, a few seconds after the high-speed crash.

He wondered “why there were so many journalists around the Mercedes as I was giving first aid.” It was only when he turned on his television the next morning that he learned the answer, Mailliez recounted Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Dead

Diana was pronounced dead a few hours after the crash that occurred while she and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, were being chauffeured by an intoxicated driver and pursued by photographers. A bodyguard was the car’s sole survivor.

On that summer night, Mailliez, an emergency doctor, was driving along the Seine river and approaching the tunnel when he saw a smoky accident scene ahead. He stopped and went to investigate.

When he opened a door of the crumpled Mercedes, he saw four people, two of them in cardiac arrest. The other two, including Diana, were still alive.

“They were reacting, but clearly had significant injuries,” the doctor said. He immediately called for emergency rescue services and went to work without the medical equipment he would normally use in a life-threatening situation.

“I just had my bare hands,” he lamented.

For several long minutes, Mailliez was the only doctor at the scene. His full attention went to the emergency before him and “at no point did I come to understand who these people were.”

For a long time after, he wondered if he should have done anything differently, whether he could have done anything that would have saved the 36-year-old princess’ life.

“I checked with myself and I checked also with other doctors, professors of medicine, and actually I couldn’t have done anything better than what I did,” he said.

Mailliez understands why people were, and still are, attached to Diana.

“She was endearing. She was apparently starting a new life. She seemed happy. And then she died in a stupid, dumb accident. A princess cannot die in a stupid accident,” he said.