A DUCHESS IN DANGER OF FAILING IN HER DUTY
To gain a few leisure hours at her grand home, Kate snubbed war heroes – and broke 115 years of tradition. Now a respected Royal writer raises a grave concern...
THE shamrock is a potent symbol. Its three heart-shaped l eaves represent both Ireland and the Holy Trinity. God and country. It’s why, on St Patrick’s Day every year, it’s handed out to Irish Guards who fight and die in the British Armed Forces. Even in war it is shipped out to them to be tucked into their Kevlar helmets.
For those at home the ultimate honour is to have it presented by a senior female member of the Royal Family. A tradition begun by Princess Alexandra in 1901 became the graceful trademark of the Queen Mother who maintained it until she died. She even missed her favourite day’s racing at Cheltenham to be at the St Patrick’s Day parade.
It would have been an easy custom for the Duchess of Cambridge to embrace and make her own. Indeed, it was her first solo military engagement in March 2012 and for the next three years she made herself a favourite among the troops when she accompanied Prince William, who is Colonel of the Regiment.
Last Thursday to everyone’s surprise she left him to perform the duty alone.
So unthinking were her advisers in Kensington Palace that when a row about her absence erupted they replied that she’d simply gone home to Norfolk to be with her children. For Kate to miss an opportunity to honour the Armed Forces with such a lame excuse shows a distinct lack of understanding. If she wants to be thought of as a modern princess who will go the extra mile for the brave soldiers she represents through her charities, she should have been there at their new barracks at Hounslow, not at home in Anmer Hall.
It somehow made the covenant between Royals and the military look as if it didn’t matter.
The Duchess’s advisers should have stopped to think how pitiful an excuse it looked to soldiers who have been divided from their families for months on operational tours since British Forces became engaged in the War on Terror in 2003. But they clearly did not.
Sadly, for William and Kate, who could do no wrong at the time of their marriage in April 2011, it’s another unnecessary mistake. Last month the Duke failed to show up at the Baftas for the second year running. He is the Academy’s president, so it’s as if the cream of British cinema and a clutch of Hollywood A-listers had been stood up by their host. Again.
The Duke and Duchess have had their decision to leave London for the safety and privacy of Anmer Hall in Norfolk wholly indulged. Who could criticise Prince William’s insistence that his children are not exposed to the same kind of scrutiny he had as a child. In this he is fully supported by the Queen, his father the Prince of Wales, the British media and the British people.
Prince William said recently that the growing criticism of himself and his wife ‘came with the territory’. But it doesn’t have to. If he did not appear to be chafing quite so much at his Royal responsibilities and was more accepting of the affection on offer from the millions who will one day be his subjects, he could be forgiven a lot.
The enormous global popularity of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge means there could be a contemporary compromise somewhere between the formality and remoteness of a century ago and the temporary madness of the Diana and Fergie years.
Prince William seems to be impervious to this idea. Instead he has begun to groom foreign media who give him the same platitudinous message that they give various celebrities.
While holding the British press at arm’s length, the younger members of the Royal Family are giving cuddly, banal interviews to favoured publications and American TV networks.
Kate recently guest edited US website The Huffington Post, which was a strange choice since the site has previously published unflattering paparazzi pictures of her.
WHEN William and Kate first married they insisted they didn’t want to be hidden in the ivory tower of royalty. They wanted to be with the people doing what they did, not surrounded by riches and privilege. Now they are doing just that.
Of course they will one day be anointed King and Queen, and they will need their people behind them. Courting favour overseas won’t work and nor will ignoring public opinion at home.
They may have been thrilled by their own cleverness at having a secret four-day ski break in Courchevel earlier this month but where they see an entitlement to privacy, the public see a rich, increasingly spoiled couple growing surprisingly distant.
The Queen is held up as a model of industry and decorum for the younger members of the Firm, but even she is not immune to the occasional longing for a lie-in or a TV dinner when she knows that it’s impossible.
The Queen Mother used to call it devoir, the French for duty. If she thought her daughter was exhausted or fed up – and the Queen is not superhuman – she would whisper the word ‘devoir’. It was their code to ‘carry on’ regardless.
For more than 63 years the Queen has done exactly that and today she herself points out that the art of being Royal is a matter of practice.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have proved themselves expert at this. Today Prince Charles is the hardest working member of his family, burning the midnight oil reading state boxes, writing missives and sending letters.
Camilla has taken her pragmatic place by his side and in the life of the British nation. Like the Queen Mother, she knows a senior female Royal with a big hat and a warm smile really matters.
I have been writing about and observing the Royal Family since the 1980s, and have seen Royal life change substantially as they face the challenge of taking the Monarchy forward into the next century.
William with Kate, the first girl with true working-class roots to marry a future king, should be the couple most capable of bringing the Monarchy closer to the people.
That’s going to involve some degree of personal sacrifice from them. But a few hours of Kate’s time to present shamrocks is just a small one compared to the ultimate sacrifice which remains a reality for the military men she let down on St Patrick’s Day.
Ingrid Seward is author of The Queen’s Speech: An Intimate Portrait Of The Queen In Her Own Words, published by Simon & Schuster.
A pitiful excuse to soldiers divided from their families