William pays poignant visit to Diana hospice
PRINCE William followed in his mother’s footsteps yesterday as he toured a children’s hospice 30 years after she opened it.
Diana was 27 when she visited the Acorns hospice in Selly Oak, Birmingham, in December 1988. Her son is now 36 and a father of three.
Some of the staff and supporters who were present at both events said they remembered Diana’s visit ‘like it was yesterday’ and declared that William had inherited his mother’s way with the youngsters.
To add to the sense of poignancy the prince posed for pictures next to the plaque commemorating his mother’s visit. He told well-wishers it was ‘fantastic’ to be there.
Later he unveiled a statue in tribute to a British man who risked his life to save 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
MI6 officer Major Frank Foley was stationed in Berlin and used his cover as a British passport control officer to extricate Jews from concentration camps and get travel documents for refugees to flee to Britain and other countries before the war.
‘What a brave man,’ the prince said after meeting Major Foley’s family and one of the men he rescued.
William unveiled the £40,000 statue in Stourbridge, where Foley retired in 1949. He died in 1958. The story of his heroism only emerged in 1999 when secret papers were released.