The Queen’s nephew, David Armstrong-Jones, joined Her Majesty at Church this morning in Flitcham, just two days after the death of his father.
Lord Snowdon, the former husband of Princess Margaret, died on Friday at the age of 86.
Viscount Linley, who will styled as the 2nd Earl of Snowdon following his father’s funeral, attended church with his wife, Serena, by his side.
Lord Snowdon was the former husband of Princess Margaret. They got married in 1960, however, a divorce soon followed in 1976.
The announcement of his engagement to Margaret, on 26 February 1960, took the press by surprise. Margaret had taken care to conceal the romance from reporters.
On 11 July 1978, the Snowdons’ divorce was finalised. It was the first divorce of a senior Royal since Princess Victoria of Edinburgh in 1901. Though her marriage to Lord Snowdon had begun with great happiness, with the addition of their children David and Sarah, their unhappiness began to be well known within the family and eventually in March 1976, an announcement was made regarding their separation.
Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret had two children together before they separated, David Armstrong-Jones and Lady Sarah Chatto.
The Queen was seen to be in full spirit on Sunday morning as she attended church in the village of Flitcham, close to her Sandringham estate.
Her Majesty was wearing a bright purple outfit, equipped with an umbrella to protect herself from the Norfolk weather.
This is the 90-year-old’s second visit to church this year, having been forced to miss the traditional New Year church service due to illness.
As a result of the “heavy cold” she was suffering from, she was not able to attend the Christmas morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church for the first time since 1988. Before 1988, Her Majesty instead attended a church service at Windsor meaning that this was the first time The Queen was absent from communion in recent living memory.
Grief comes to one in many ways. I have found, as in the death of my father two years ago, that there is a struggle between what might have been, had I or he acted differently on occasion coupled with eventually joy at what a life he led and his many “gifts” to me and my family. I believe that it is a process for mature handling of death, to realize that we carry within ourselves the “ghosts” of many departed. Forgiving may of the slights or sins many of these “ghosts” committed (for all sin at times, even Saints) is very healthy for maturing into full adulthood. But, when my sister after my father’s death, said: “Carry out his Will,” I have tried after grief, to make this mean to carry out (with frequent failure on the pathway) to mean to carry out the best of what my parents represented in what is for all a life of frequent adversity and setbacks that one must–as they–overcome. God bless them; and, keep them in his heart. I write this for the Earl Snowden’s and Princess Margaret’s family; and, hope it may help others. For death is a natural part of life. And, now I say of my parents: “Oh death, where is thy sting?”