Prince William made an under-the-radar trip to Wales yesterday with his aunts Princess Anne and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, for a special memorial service
Prince William made an under-the-radar appearance with two other senior royals to remember a close family friend. The Prince of Wales travelled to Brecon in Wales yesterday, where he attended a memorial service for Dame Shan Legge-Bourke. She had a sweet connection to both William and his brother, Prince Harry, as her daughter Tiggy was their childhood nanny.
Tiggy grew extremely close to the brothers, with the pair regular visitors to Dame Shan’s Glanusk estate on the Welsh border. At her memorial yesterday at Brecon Cathedral, William was joined by his aunts Princess Anne and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh. Dame Shan was a former lady-in-waiting for Anne.
READ MORE: King Charles’ ‘strategic reason’ for snubbing Andrew despite being a few miles apartREAD MORE: Princess Kate surprises with historic first as she and William issue new video
According to the Court Circular, William attended the memorial on behalf of his father, the King, while Sophie was there in place of her husband, Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh. On their way to the service, both William and Anne passed through Christ College Brecon, where a crowd of pupils came out to greet them. In mobile phone footage, William could be seen asking the children, “No school work?”, before joking, “Surely, it’s exam time, it must be”.
Dame Shan died in December aged 82. She inherited the huge swathe of land from her father, William Bailey, the 3rd Lord Glanusk and was a pivotal figure in public life in Wales.
Over the years, she had been the Lord Lieutenant of Powys, the High Sheriff of Powys, President of Save the Children in Wales, President of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society and the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs.
Announcing her death at the end of last year, her devastated family said: “We are very sad to announce the death of the Honourable Dame Shân Legge-Bourke DCVO CstJ, who died peacefully at home surrounded by all her children.
“We are devastated to lose our mother. She was an inspiration to us all, and to many people she met over her years of service to Wales, and the countless organisations and institutions she supported. A country girl at heart, she has left an indelible legacy at Glanusk, the wider countryside and beyond.”
In 2006, Dame Shan appeared in a four-part documentary on BBC Wales called The Lady of Glanusk, where she was seen climbing on the roof of her home to clean the guttering and plucking pheasants with her seven grandchildren.
Her other daughter, Zara, remarked at the time: “She can drive a tractor better than any man I’ve ever seen and can reverse it through a narrow gap with a trailer on the back of it.” Dame Shan had long been a friend of the royals, coming to know William and Harry well through her daughter, Tiggy, who once referred to the young princes as ‘my babies’.
Last year, Tiggy’s stepson, Edward Pettifer, was killed in a terror attack in New Orleans. He was killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day when a rented SUV rammed into a crowd on the city’s famous Bourbon Street.
The 31-year-old, from Chelsea in west London, was the eldest son of Charles Pettifer, 59, a former Coldstream Guards officer who is now married to Tiggy, and Camilla Wyatt, 58, the daughter of a racehorse breeder.
At the time, William paid tribute and said: “Catherine and I have been shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack.”
