OPINION Superfan’s labour of love
Royal baby watch: Bookmakers say 90 per cent betting on a princess
Awed by the impending birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s second child, John Loughrey — who styles himself “Princess Diana’s Superfan” — simply had to camp out in front of St. Mary’s Hospital this week, although Buckingham Palace and the police had asked the media, ardent monarchists and the curious to stay away until Kate goes into labour.
Clad from head to toe in the Union Jack, and carrying a copy of the New Testament with the flag on the cover, the 60-yearold Londoner was telling anyone who would listen Thursday that he wants the realm’s newest royal to be a princess, “so her brother, Prince George, has someone to play with and to boss around.”
With that Loughrey broke into song and dance about whether the baby would be a prince or a princess.
Despite this rather bizarre bit of street theatre, and the fact that Loughrey was standing beside a reporter from the hugely popular Sun newspaper who was wearing almost exactly the same over-the-top getup as he was, the atmosphere was not as circuslike outside St. Mary’s as it was two years ago when a crush of journalists, ardent royalists and the curious, laid siege to the hospital for weeks before Kate gave birth to Prince George. Notwithstanding William’s appeal for privacy at this special family moment, media interest in who will become the fourth in the line of succession to the British throne remains intense.
Media pens have been installed along the street in front of the Lindo Wing of the hospital, where, if all goes well, William and Kate are expected to show their second child to the world one or two days after it is born. While prohibited from gathering, journalists, who have marked their spots with company logos, are not far away. The side streets around the hospital, which is close to Paddington Station, are packed with media vans. A small forest of satellite dishes have long been in place in a nearby parking lot so the media can tell the waiting world the moment Kate enters the hospital.
There has been almost nothing newsy to report on except that William has finished a helicopter air ambulance training course early and began six weeks of official paternity leave a couple of days ago. But the British media have never been at a loss for words when speculating about the Royal Family.
“O Duchess of my dreams, I am at your beck and call, coiled like a watchspring to hold milk bottles and change nappies until the first week of June,” was what the fertile mind of a Daily Mail columnist came up with.
In one of many articles it has published about the next royal, the same newspaper asked how Kate will be able to cope with having two children under the age of two.
People Magazine, which lives for such froth, reported that Kate bought a second-hand lining for the family crib and speculated that the newborn’s nursery would mostly likely be “elegantly decorated in neutral colours with accents of ‘George,’” whatever that means.
Much has also been made this week of the heretofore unexpected possibility that William’s brother, Harry, who is on secondment from the British army in Australia, might be able to see the new prince or princess if he or she is born this weekend.
Harry is flying in to London for a couple of days from Turkey, where he has been participating in ceremonies recalling the centenary of the infamous defeat of the British and ANZAC at Gallipoli.
As before Prince George was born, most of the conjecture has been about the gender of Queen Elizabeth’s newest great-grandchild and what the child will be named. According to those bookmakers taking bets on the sex of the baby, 90 per cent of customers believe it will be a girl.
If it is a boy James and Philip are among the public’s preferred names. If it is a girl Alice, Victoria and Charlotte are favourites. “For me the perfect name would be Elizabeth Diana,” said Loughrey, who opined that if the baby was not born until after the media’s declared due date of Saturday, it significantly increased the chance that it would be a girl.
The royal baby frenzy may not end any time soon. The usually serious and rather high brow Independent said it had it on good authority that Prince William and Kate Middleton were hoping to have a third child.
Loughrey has already declared his intention to be back at St. Mary’s for that blessed day and again when Prince George, who is not yet out of diapers, has his first child.
With great dignity he said: “When we come here we can see history being made before our eyes.”