The Princess Royal has brought the first month of the year to an end with another run of engagements. This week, Anne’s diary has seen her celebrate major milestones in equal rights and show her support for a new generation of entrepreneurs before stepping out in the snow for a special event. Here’s what the Princess Royal has done this week.
On Tuesday, January 29th Anne marked the 150th anniversary of women being offered the chance for formal admission to universities in England. She attended at reception, at St. James’ Palace, to mark the Leading Women initiative of the University of London of which she is chancellor. That scheme has been celebrating the 1868 move by the university to allow women to sit a special exam so that they, too, could access the higher education it offered. At the event, Anne met leaders from across society and saw an exhibition marking the milestone which included a charter permitting the exam which had been issued by her great, great, great grandmother, Queen Victoria.
On the same day, Anne attended an awards event in her role as patron of Save the Children UK. The International Finance Review Awards have a long association with the charity and have raised money for them for several years. The event took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
There were more celebrations for Anne on Wednesday, January 30th when the princess attended the 140th anniversary reception of the City and Guilds of London Institute at the Guildhall in London. The organisation works with people and companies across the world to improve and develop skills to promote growth and innovation. The Princess Royal gave a speech focusing on the importance of talent development and helped hand out awards.
Earlier in the day, the princess had been in Suffolk to help mark the 175th anniversary of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club based in Woolverstone near Ipswich. Anne spoke there about the importance of making sailing accessible for everyone and unveiled a new vessel provided by the Woolverstone Project which has been providing opportunities to disabled people to take to the water for over fifteen years.
Wednesday also saw Anne receive Captain Timothy Nield RN as he relinquished his appointment as Commanding Officer of the HMS Albion, the Royal Navy’s High Readiness Amphibious Assault Ship. The princess also received his successor in the post, Captain Peter Laughton RN, as his tenure began. The day ended with Anne attending a dinner in London hosted by the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers of which she is an honorary member. It is the oldest engineering society in the world.
On Thursday, the Princess Royal received her outgoing Private Secretary, Captain Sir Nicholas Wright RN as he retired from that role. He will continue to act as an Extra Equerry to the princess. Later that day, Anne headed to Winchester in Hampshire to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Women’s Section of the Royal British Legion. Anne chatted to many of the organisation’s members and went on to hand out medals and certificates.
The Princess Royal has carried out 28 engagements so far in 2019. She was the busiest member of the Royal Family last year, taking on 518 engagements across 2018.
