Ten years on, Britain commemorates the ‘people’s princess’

LONDON: Britain will pay tribute this week to the life of Princess Diana who, love her or loathe her, has managed to hold onto the posthumous title of “people’s princess” since her tragic death 10 years ago.

The focus of commemorations will be a royal memorial service on Friday, the anniversary of the high-speed Paris car crash that claimed her life at the age of 36, attended by her sons, Princes William and Harry, ex-husband Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II.

William and Harry, aged just 15 and 12 when their mother died and now officers in the British army, will both give readings.

Other guests at their regimental chapel in London will include Prime Minister Gordon Brown — who said in The Mail on Sunday newspaper that Diana “still has the remarkable ability to move and inspire” — ex-premier Tony Blair and Sir Elton John, who delivered an adapted version of his song “Candle In The Wind” at Diana’s funeral.

But Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Charles’s second wife with whom he conducted a lengthy affair during his marriage to Diana, will be conspicuous by her absence.

She pulled out Sunday, saying she thought her attendance “could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion” despite officials previously insisting she would be there after a personal invitation from William, 25, and Harry, 22. Camilla’s affair with Charles prompted Diana to once quip publicly: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

The prospect of Charles’ second wife being present at Friday’s commemorative ceremonies had raised eyebrows in the media and among Diana’s old friends.

“I know such services should be an occasion for forgiveness, but I can’t help feeling Camilla’s attendance is deeply inappropriate,” Rosa Monckton, a close friend of the princess of Wales, wrote in The Mail on Sunday this week.

Charles and Camilla’s marriage, which seemed unthinkable in the months after Diana’s death, illustrates how some attitudes have shifted in Britain over the last decade. However, Diana herself remains as divisive a figure as when she died.

While many revere the woman Blair dubbed “the people’s princess” for her star quality, charity work and powers of empathy, an equally vocal group abhors the wave of sentimentality unleashed by the passing of the princess who once called herself the “queen of hearts.”

Australian feminist Germaine Greer, who labelled her “a moron” earlier this month, took aim again this week, writing in The Sunday Times: “Diana’s legacy is no more than endless column inches of adulation and speculation.”

While it seems unlikely that tears will flow as freely this week as a decade ago, Diana’s memory will loom large not only at the service, but also in a flurry of unofficial tributes around Britain.

The BBC is re-screening her funeral in full on a digital channel, while Diana’s former residence, Kensington Palace, and the National Portrait Gallery, both in London, are hosting exhibitions devoted to her. Flowers are likely to pile up outside the palace as they did in the days after her death in a tribute which has been repeated annually on the anniversary ever since.

And her childhood home and final resting place, Althorp in central England, is breaking with tradition by opening to the public on the anniversary. Tickets have already sold out.

William and Harry have already held their own event to commemorate their mother — a huge pop concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in July attended by more than 60,000 people watching Diana’s favourite bands like Duran Duran.

Diana still makes headline news frequently in Britain, often over the long-awaited inquest into her fatal car crash on August 31, 1997, which is finally expected to get under way in London in October.