Slice of history as piece of Diana and Charles’ cake up for auction
A PIECE of Charles and Diana’s wedding cake which was given to children at a kindergarten where she worked is up for auction.
The slice was presented to kids at Young England in Pimlico where Diana had a job as a teacher until early 1981.
She visited the school on July 17 that year where she was given gifts by pupils and watched a Punch and Judy show.
The royal couple married 12 days later and following the wedding the kindergarten children were presented with a gift. They were given a small box containing a slice of cake from one of the many official wedding cakes made for Charles and Diana.
One child was Daisy Thomson and despite being only four at the time managed to avoid temptation and has kept it safe until now.
The cake, pictured below, is on sale at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
A spokesman said: “On Friday, July 17, Lady Diana Spencer paid a surprise visit at the end-of-term party at Young England Kindergarten where she had worked as a teacher for two years.
“Diana’s pupils gave her an engraved glass goblet and a picture they had painted themselves. She spent more than an hour with the children and also watched a Punch and Judy show.
“Later, the children were each given one of these small presentation pieces of wedding cake and a commemorative mug.
“This piece of cake was given to the four-year-old Daisy Thompson who has kept it safe until now”.
Amongst the other pupils was Diana’s alleged favourite, Clementine Hambro, the great-granddaughter of Winston Churchill – who was also one of Diana’s bridesmaids at the wedding 12 days later.
The spokesman added: “Though similar to the presentation boxes given to the 3,500 wedding guests, these boxes given to her Young England pupils are very few in number and rarely come on the market”.
The slice of history is on sale at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on June 15-16. Visit www.dominicwinter. co.uk/
The cake is expected to sell for several hundred pounds.
HAVING your first baby should be the happiest time, but Teri Elder, 33, from Stoke-on-Trent, found herself suffering anxiety and postnatal depression.
It was 2016 and Teri was two months from her due date when she learned that her partner, Andy, had bladder and kidney cancer. “He developed pneumonia and we were told he wasn’t going to live,” she recalls. “Suddenly I wasn’t thinking about the pregnancy any more, it was all about my partner because I thought I’d lose him.”
So when baby JessieLea arrived, Teri felt overwhelmed at becoming a new mum.
“I just remember thinking, ‘What do I do?’ I was lost. For about six months I didn’t want to do anything at all.”
Then, out of the blue, Teri decided enough was enough. “One day I thought, ‘I need to get up for my daughter; I need to do something.’ So I got her buggy and a backpack and started walking.
“It helped me just being outside in nature.”
Wondering if there were others like herself who might benefit from a good walk and a chat, Teri put a post on Facebook, and the response was amazing.
Fast forward to 2022 and there’s a lot to celebrate. Not only has Andy, now 41, been in remission for five years, but Teri’s little walking group has taken on a life of its own. enterprise, Walk Talk Action receives National Lottery funding, and has helped over 500 people, including service veterans, with issues such as PTSD, anxiety, midlife crisis and postnatal depression.
It is also now taking part in Happy and Glorious, a National Lottery-funded project organised by the New Vic Theatre in Newcastleunder-Lyme to mark the Platinum Jubilee. It’s just one of the amazing projects made possible by National Lottery players, who raise over £30million each week for good causes.*
“I’m really grateful for the funding,” says Teri. “We’ve helped so many people get to a better state of mind through walking, talking and taking action.”
To mark the Jubilee, Walk Talk Action is restoring a two-acre site in Stoke-onTrent, creating a little oasis where people can spend some time away from it all in nature. “It’ll be a wild garden that people can visit to recuperate, have a cuppa, try journalling – or even some weeding!” says Teri.