I WANTED TO GETONWITHIT
Unfailingly practical and down-to-ear th, Princess Anne’s no-nonsense approach has always been much-admired
It’s hard to believe that Her Majesty the Queen will be 95 next year and that HRH The Princess Royal will be 70 on August 15 this year. Time passes but one thing never changes – we have always been blessed in having the most delightful of fair ytale princesses come to life.
“I didn’t ask to be born a princess!” she once replied to an inter viewer’s leading questions. It was par tly a rebuke but it was also a telling statement from Anne. Even though she did not ask to be born a princess nobody could ever accuse her of shirking her responsibilities. She has been tagged “the working princess” and even anti-royalists have to admit that Princess Anne lives up to that label.
She has proved herself time and again to be capable of bringing a ray of sunshine to many of the world’s less for tunate people, yet on the day she was born – August 15, 1950 – it was a rainy morning in London. Almost prophetically the skies cleared and the sun appeared just as Big Ben struck noon. Only ten minutes before, Anne had been born.
The bir th was announced in a Cour t Circular issued immediately after wards.
It simply stated, “At 11.50 o’clock this morning, Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth of Edinburgh, was safely delivered of a Princess at Clarence House.
Here we are 70 years later and Anne has proven to be a true princess in every sense. When she was old enough she was sent to Benenden School – a well-known boarding
As a child with the
Queen establishment for girls – and enjoyed ever y minute of it.
Benenden has been established in some of the most picturesque countr yside in the land and not far from Tunbridge Wells. For nearly a centur y the school has operated, and Anne arrived there in the autumn of 1963 when she had just become a teenager.
There were those who felt sorry for the princess but she was actually looking for ward to the challenge and the new adventure of a different education life style.
“I had no problem with going to Benenden,” she said. “I was looking for ward to sharing with other girls. One of the drawbacks of home education is that you are the whole class. Having 30 girls around you means that you don’t have to answer ever ything yourself and that took of f a lot of pressure.”
Miss Elizabeth Clarke was her new headmistress.
“I was given to understand by the Queen that she wishes her daughter to be treated as a normal pupil here. She will be addressed by the staff as Princess Anne but among the other pupils she will simply be known as Anne.”
All the girls were expected to make their own beds, wait on tables and take par t in the washing up at weekends.
“I enjoyed the informality of it all,” said Her Highness. “It took a little while to get used to but I enjoyed just being Anne and being able to take par t in ever ything that was going on.”
She left school with six O levels and two A levels. There was talk of her going to university but she