by The Laird o’Thistle
August 9 2010

HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, KG, KT, etc., turns 60 on August 15, in a typically low-key manner. Reports indicate that no huge parties are planned. She plans to go sailing with her husband, having just recently completed the family cruise in Scotland with the Queen and members of the royal family.

As I was thinking back about Princess Anne over the years I remembered a photo taken by Norman Parkinson to mark her 21st birthday in 1971 portraying the princess by the lake at Buckingham Palace with upswept hair, a white “boater” hat with a broad pink ribbon, and a not-quite-“granny” dress typical of the era. It was one of the most truly beautiful portraits of Princess Anne ever done.

Oddly enough, these days one is more likely to think of the Princess Royal in the very masculine uniform she dons each year for the Trooping the Color where she rides as Gold Stick in Waiting, an office dating back to the time of Charles II and formerly held by Earl Mountbatten. Or, we ponder with bemusement her penchant for showing off how she still fits into the clothes she wore twenty or thirty years ago including, last year, the entire outfit she wore to Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981! Or, the image comes to mind of the ever-practical Anne in boots, a sturdy coat, and sensible scarf going purposefully around at some damp horsey event.

The brief flirtation with glamour in 1971 long since gave way to the no-nonsense lady who is so highly regarded today. Of all the Mountbatten-Windsors (the surname she used to sign the register at her 1973 wedding to Mark Phillips) she in many ways best personifies the old rather gruffly Germanic mold of the British royal family stretching back to the Hanoverians, and among her siblings bears the greatest physical resemblance to them as well. That said, she’s also the most like her father, to whom she is very close.

With all due respect to the Prince of Wales, who I admire very much, I have long thought that the Princess Royal would be the best future monarch out of the Queen’s four children. Her tireless devotion to the “job” of being royal and loyal service to “The Firm” is beyond comparison. She even handled her divorce and later remarriage in a way that her brothers would have been well advised to imitate, right down to the intimate little family wedding at Crathie Kirk the second time around.

HRH’s many public engagements over the years have ranged from her being the first member of the British royal family ever to officially visit the Soviet Union (in 1990), to her acting as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1996. One of her early foreign adventures was a trip along with the Prince of Wales to visit Washington DC and the Nixon White House. (President Nixon is believed to have been hoping to do a bit of matchmaking between Prince Charles and his daughter Tricia. Luckily for Anne the Nixons had no sons to push at her.)

Her best known charitable sponsorship is her longstanding association with Save the Children, for whom she has done many many international visits under extremely trying conditions. She is patron of the cadet program of the St. John Ambulance; and also has a deep personal interest and longstanding relationship with SENSE, an association for children and adults who are deafblind. She is a longtime member of The International Olympic Committee, having been a member of the British Olympic Equestrian Team at Montreal in 1976, and a member of the London Organizing Committee for the 2012 Olympics.

Now a member of both the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle, the Princess Royal reportedly insists upon being termed a “Knight” rather than a “Lady” in both orders.

Besides her passion for equestrianism and sailing, the princess has been keen on lighthouses ever since a visit to one with the late Queen Mother back in 1955. It is reportedly her ambition to visit every one of Scotland’s 215 lighthouses. (One wonders if she ticked any new ones off her list during the royal family’s recently concluded cruise in the Hebrides?)

Recent critics of the cost of security for members of the royal family would do well to recall the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne back in 1974 in which several were shot. Characteristically, when ordered out of the car by the would-be kidnapper, she responded: “Not bloody likely!” Instead, she escaped through the opposite door.

And now, HRH is to be the first of her sibs to be a grandparent… making the Queen a great-grandmother. Her son “Master” Peter Philips and wife Autumn are due to have their first child in a few months time. It is doubtful that the word “doting” will ever fit this particular granny, but having been a fairly successful mother the prospect is good that she will be a good one. And it remains a good bet that if Anne’s daughter, Zara Phillips, makes the 2012 Olympic Equestrian team, her mother will be in the forefront urging her on.

Best wishes to the Princess Royal, and thanks to her for her many years of devoted service. May the years ahead be rich and fulfilling to her.

Yours aye,
Ken Cuthbertson