Princess Diana 

                                                                     (1st July 1961-31 August 1997)

Lucknow : Life history of Princess Diana

Childhood :

Diana was born into a family of British Nobility with royal ancestry as The Honourable Diana Spencer. She was the fourth child and third daughter of John Spencer,Viscount Althrop  and the Honourable frances Roche. She grew up in Park House, situated on theSandingram estate , and was educated inEngland  and Switzerland. In 1975, after her father inherited the title of, she became Lady Diana Spencer. Her parents got divorced and her father got custody of Diana and her three siblings .Diana’s maternal grandmother was Lady Fermoy .She was a  lady in waitig to the queen mother .Diana worked as a cleaning woman and baby sitter .

Education and career :

Diana began her education at Silfield Private School in Gayton,norfolk and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Diss, when she was nine. She failed O level twice and had a very poor academic record . In London, she took an advanced cooking course, but seldom cooked for her roommates. She took a series of low-paying jobs; she worked as a dance instructor for youth until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work.She then found employment as a playgroup pre-school assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and acted as a hostess at parties. Diana spent time working as a nanny for the Robertsons, an American family living in London,and worked as a nursery teacher’s assistant at the Young England School in Pimlico. In July 1979, her mother bought her a flat at Coleherne Court in Earls Court as an 18th birthday present.She lived there with three flatmates until 25 February 1981.

Freinds :

Giani Vercase ,Geoge Micheal ,Bryan Adams and Elton john were among her close friends .

Marriage to Prince of Wales :

Engagement :Diana first met Charles, Prince of Wales, in November 1977 when he was dating her sister, Lady Sarah.Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981.Lady Diana selected a large engagement ring consisting of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-carat white gold, similar to her mother’s engagement ring. The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard but, unusually for a ring for a member of the Royal Family, it was not unique; it was featured in Garrard’s jewellery collection. In 2010 the ring became the engagement ring of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

Wedding :

Dianas wedding to Prince of Charles on 29 july 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral .Widely described as a “fairytale wedding”, it was watched by a global television audience of 750 million while 600,000 people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple en route to the ceremony.After becoming Princess of Wales, Diana automatically acquired rank as the third-highest female in the United Kingdom Order of Precedence .

Divorce :

Within five years of her marriage, the couple’s incompatibility and age difference almost 13 years as well as Diana’s concern about Charles’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles  became visible and damaging to their marriage.During the early 1990s, the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Princess and Prince spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage’s demise.

Charities :

Lady Diana supported more than 100 charities and international campaign to ban landmines . She won the noble peace prize after her death .The Princess developed an intense interest in serious illnesses and health-related matters outside the purview of traditional royal involvement, including AIDS and leprosy.

Death :

On 31 August 1997, Diana was fatally injured in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris, which also caused the deaths of her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul, acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris. The funeral saw the British television audience peak at 32.10 million, one of the United Kingdom’s highest viewing figures ever, while millions more watched the event around the world .

The sudden and unexpected death of an extraordinarily popular royal figure brought statements from senior figures worldwide and many tributes by members of the public. People left public offerings of flowers, candles, cards, and personal messages outside Kensington Palace for many months. Her coffin, draped with the royal flag, was brought to London from Paris by Prince Charles and Diana’s two sisters on 31 August 1997. After being taken to a private mortuary it was placed in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.

Diana’s funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 6 September. The previous day Queen Elizabeth II had paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast. Her sons walked in the funeral procession behind her coffin, along with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, Diana’s brother Lord Spencer, and representatives of some of her charities.

Memorial’s :

Immediately after her death, many sites around the world became briefly ad hoc memorials to Diana where the public left flowers and other tributes. The largest was outside the gates of Kensington Palace, where people continue to leave flowers and tributes. Permanent memorials include:

• The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Gardens in Regent Centre Gardens Kirkintilloch
• The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, London, opened by Elizabeth II
• The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, London
• The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, a circular path between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park, and St. James’s Park, London                                                                                                                                                                                                         By Meenakshi Sharma