Princess Anne to rededicate Citizen’s War Memorial
Princess Anne, the sister of King Charles III, will visit New Zealand this month and Christchurch is on the list.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced the royal visit yesterday. Princess Anne will attend centenary celebrations for a New Zealand Army contingent she is the symbolic colonel in chief of, alongside her husband Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
‘‘Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is colonel in chief, to attend its 100th anniversary celebrations at Linton Military Camp in Palmerston North,’’ he said.
Her presence would ‘‘acknowledge the importance of signallers within New Zealand Defence Force operations over the last 100 years’’.
Princess Anne would also lay a wreath at the Pukeahu National War Memorial in Wellington, and visit Christchurch to ‘‘rededicate’’ the Citizen’s War Memorial in Cathedral Square.
Royal fans were excited to hear of the impending visit, with one concerned her holiday plans might clash with a possible sighting.
‘‘I would’ve loved to have seen her – she’s a great worker that girl,’’ said Lisbeth Clement, of Christchurch.
It would be ‘‘rotten luck’’ if her week away in midFebruary clashed.
Clement is a diehard fan since listening to the wedding of Prince Philip and then-Princess Elizabeth on the radio when she was 5 years old.
She had since done ‘‘all sorts of interesting things’’ involving the royals, including sharing a rather long handshake with Prince Harry during his visit to Dunedin in 2015.
Royal fan Anne Munro said she would ‘‘love to see‘‘ the ‘‘no-nonsense’’ royal.
‘‘She’s a top lady and says it like it is, and what’s more, she means it.’’
Munro said she met Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1963 when they visited Christchurch as she was chosen to serve them at the old United Service Hotel in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square.
‘‘It was quite an honour being chosen to serve her.’’
Princess Anne last visited New Zealand in 2010. She has a reputation as a hard-working royal and, in 1974, when a wouldbe armed kidnapper grabbed her in a car and told her to come out, famously replied: ‘‘Not bloody likely!’’.
The Citizen’s War Memorial is being reinstated on a new site in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square to make way for the restored Christ Church Cathedral.
Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger said Princess Anne’s visit would be a ‘‘huge honour’’.
Canterbury RSA president Neill Price said of the visit: ‘‘We’re really rapt.’’