William and Harry to lead moving birthday tribute to Diana
PRINCESS Diana’s sons will attend a private service to re-dedicate her grave on what would have been her 56th birthday on Saturday.
And Prince William will take along his wife Kate and his own two children, Prince George, three, and Princess Charlotte, two.
They will be at the Spencer family seat at Althorp House in Northamptonshire to see the final resting place of the grandmother they never met.
The visit by William and Harry comes as the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, approaches.
The Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby will conduct the re-dedication expected to be also attended by members of Diana’s own family, the Spencers.
Prince Charles will not be there however, as he and his second wife Camilla will be in Canada on the final day of a three-day tour.
Revamp
Clarence House declined to say whether the heir to the throne, who was divorced from Diana when she died, would be sending flowers or marking the event in some way.
William, 35, and Harry, 32, who were only 15 and 12 when their mother died, announced their visit through Kensington Palace because they wanted the nation to know they were honouring their mother. But they will not be inviting cameras.
The brothers have also commissioned a statue of Diana to be erected in the future in Kensington Gardens and have supported a year-long programme of events for the Diana Award, a charity established to promote the princess’s belief in the power of young people to change society for the better.
Diana is buried on an island in an ornamental lake known as The Oval within Althorp Park’s Pleasure Garden.
Her brother Earl Spencer’s Canadian-born wife Karen has been overseeing an extensive redesign of the lake at Althorp, home to the Spencer family for 18 generations. The multimillion pound revamp on the 13,000 acre, 500-year-old estate follows criticism of the state of the Princess’s final resting place by her former personal chef, Darren McGrady, who complained that it was covered in moss after visiting it in August 2014.
Mr McGrady posted a series of pictures on Twitter of the algae-covered lake and wrote: “Sad to see Earl Spencer has neglected Diana’s resting place. Please tidy up the vegetation on the island”.
The Althorp estate admitted that algae was a problem but insisted the burial site and a small temple where visitors can pay their respects were being properly maintained.
Then in May last year, it said: “The Oval Lake where Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest on September 6, 1997, is undergoing an extensive redesign to honour her memory.
“It will be completed in time for the 20th anniversary of her death, in August 2017.
“The island at Althorp is in the process of undergoing extensive remodelling, along with the rest of Althorp’s gardens.”