History > 2007 > UK > Monarchy (III)

British Royals

Marking 60th Anniversary

November 19, 2007
Filed at 10:42 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

LONDON (AP) -- The 60th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip is also an occasion to be thankful for her long and devoted service to the nation and Commonwealth, the archbishop of Canterbury said Monday.

Archbishop Rowan Williams, speaking to the royal couple and 2,000 guests at a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey, said Tuesday's diamond anniversary was a milestone in her commitment to her role.

The queen, then Princess Elizabeth, married Philip at the abbey on Nov. 20, 1947. She became queen in 1952, following the death of her father, George VI.

''Every marriage is a public event, but some couples have to live more than others in the full light of publicity,'' Williams said. ''We are probably more aware than ever these days of the pressures this brings.

''But it also means that we can give special thanks for the very public character of the witness and the sign offered to us by this marriage, and what it has meant to nation and Commonwealth over the decades.

''And part of what it has meant has had to do precisely with the sense of unqualified commitment that has been so characteristic of every aspect of this reign: the faithful and creative personal partnership at the center of everything else has been a sign of creative faithfulness to a task, a vocation, the creative faithfulness that secures the trust, love and prayerful support of millions,'' Williams said.

Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Prince William and Prince Harry were among those attending the service.

Dame Judi Dench read a poem, ''Diamond Anniversary,'' composed by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion for the occasion.

Some 500 members of Royal Household staff past and present were also among the guests, along with representatives from the former Royal Yacht Britannia, the Royal Train and the Royal Squadron.

Five men who were boy choristers at the 1947 wedding service carried candles in the procession.

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On the Net:

Royal anniversary, http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page6101.asp

    British Royals Marking 60th Anniversary, NYT, 19.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-People-Queen-Elizabeth-II.html

Queen Elizabeth in fashion top 50

Mon Nov 5, 2007
8:09am EST
Reuters
By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - One is in vogue. At the age of 81, Queen Elizabeth on Monday joined models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell on Vogue Magazine's list of the world's most glamorous women.

The style bible slavishly worshipped by dedicated followers of fashion decreed that age was no barrier.

Sensible brogue shoes, waxed jackets and headscarves knotted firmly under the chin are clearly no passing fad.

"It's a great compliment. She has a very practical approach to fashion and a great sense of occasion," a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman told Reuters when asked about the fashion icon's tip of the hat to the queen.

"This month she becomes the first British monarch to celebrate a diamond wedding anniversary and next month she becomes Britain's oldest ever reigning monarch," she added.

Even model of the moment Agyness Deyn has said of the octogenarian monarch: "She's cool."

Kate Moss is reported to have told her once at a Buckingham Palace reception "I love the stuff you wear. You have great fashion sense."

Vogue was gushing in its praise, declaring the queen to be "as glamorous in her brogues and headscarf at (her country estate) Balmoral as she is wearing the crown jewels."

Glamour, the magazine declared, is "about how you wear something, not about what you wear. You cannot buy glamour and you can't fake it."

Veteran fashion designer Hardy Amies, who spent half a century dressing the monarch, once told Reuters: "The Queen is very demanding. She knows exactly what she wants. She wants her clothes to be friendly. Chic clothes are usually cruel."

Hardy, who died in 2003 at the age of 93, said he was very proud of the dress he made for her silver jubilee celebrations. "A picture of it now adorns thousands of biscuit tins," he said.

When actress Helen Mirren took to the screen as the British monarch in the Oscar-winning movie "The Queen", sales of Barbour waxed jackets were given a major boost in the United States.

Mirren joined the Queen on Vogue's "definitive list" of glamorous women on the list. "She is as radiant as a lightbulb," the magazine said in its December issue dedicated to glamour.

The older generation certainly holds its own in the list with 70-year-old Vanessa Redgrave and 62-year-old Charlotte Rampling up there with the supermodels of today.

    Queen Elizabeth in fashion top 50, R, 5.11.2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL056206820071105

Prince Harry quizzed by police

about shooting of rare birds

Wednesday October 31, 2007
Guardian
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent


Prince Harry and a close friend have been interviewed by police after two rare and legally protected birds of prey were killed on the royal family's Sandringham estate in Norfolk last week.

The prince is understood to have been out shooting on the estate last Wednesday evening, with a friend believed to be from the Van Cutsem family, when witnesses saw two hen harriers in flight being shot, an offence under wildlife protection legislation which carries a prison sentence of up to six months or a £5,000 fine.

Sources have told the Guardian that the prince and his friend were the only people known to be out shooting on the estate last Wednesday evening, and were quickly identified to Norfolk police by the Prince of Wales's staff. It is understood both men were interviewed in person, but have denied any involvement in the incident.

Last night a spokeswoman for Clarence House said: "Because Prince Harry and a friend were both in the area at the time, the police have been in contact with them, and asked them if they have any information that could help. Unfortunately, they've no knowledge of the alleged incident."

No one in the Van Cutsem family could be reached for comment last night, and Norfolk police refused to discuss the investigation.

The deaths have alarmed conservationists. Although widespread in other parts of the UK, hen harriers are rare in England, where there are estimated to be about 20 breeding pairs, compared with 500 pairs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The RSPB says the species is the most persecuted bird of prey; it is one of only two - the other is the sea eagle - birds of prey on the UK's "red list" of most endangered species.

The deaths, close to Dersingham Bog nature reserve on the edge of Sandringham estate, were witnessed by a staff member of Natural England, the government's conservation agency which runs the nature reserve, and two members of the public.

A spokesman for Natural England said last night: "We were shocked that two of the rarest birds of prey that we have in England had been shot." The eyewitnesses on the reserve "were watching the birds, saw them in the air, heard a shot and saw one of them fall and heard another shot and saw that one fall". An RSPB spokesman said last night that gamekeepers on country estates, particularly in areas known for grouse or pheasant shooting, were the most likely to see hen harriers as an "enemy" because they feed on game birds. "We take any allegations of killing of hen harriers very seriously, particularly because it is one of only two birds of prey on the 'red list'.

He added: "We regard persecution as a major threat, and whilst it's still a police investigation, if the allegations are substantiated, it would be a serious matter."

Sandringham is near the Hilborough country estate owned by Hugh van Cutsem, a friend of the Prince of Wales. While Prince Charles is known for his strong stance on the environment, Mr van Cutsem, a godparent to both princes, is also a senior figure in the Game Conservancy Trust and is a council member of English Nature, Natural England's predecessor.

Prince Harry and his elder brother, William, have been close friends with Mr van Cutsem's sons, particularly Edward, who is in turn a godson of Prince Charles.

    Prince Harry quizzed by police about shooting of rare birds, G, 31.10.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,,2202160,00.html

'Whatever that strange spasm

of public anguish was 10 years ago,

it ended here'

Saturday September 1, 2007
Guardian
Polly Toynbee

"Let it end here" intoned the Bishop of London, weighting these words in his address with sonorous emphasis. How this great assemblage of 30 Windsors on their knees must have prayed fervently, sincerely, deeply for just that. "Let this service mark the point at which we let her rest in peace," said the bishop. And lo, miraculously, their prayers were answered. The nation did just that.

For outside the chapel, where police with barriers expected multitudes, there were barely more watchers than at an ordinary August changing of the guard. An outraged Daily Telegraph had called for 10 giant screens to satisfy the expected throng. But journalists and camera crews from around the world almost outnumbered Royalists, with a shortage of Diana worshippers to film. Most who thinly lined the rails were curious tourists, few were British. Whatever that strange wailing, teddy-bear hugging spasm of public anguish was 10 years ago, it ended here yesterday.

What remained that was best of Diana was there in her son Harry's touching, feeling, unWindsorly tribute with his memory of her death as "indescribably shocking and sad" and his simple 12-year-old's description of her life: "She made us and so many other people happy." He had written it himself and polished it with others, they said. It takes a certain skill to write with such word-perfect innocence.

Did Diana change the nation's relationship with its monarchy? Perhaps not as much as Helen Mirren did in her Oscar-winning transformation of the Queen into a woman filled with tender private emotional dignity. Yesterday the real Queen, her consort and her heir wore lemon-sucking expressions, looking as if they were doing a wretched penance. Who knows what they feel, but how they must hope the ghost of Diana and her cult is at last at rest.

As many predicted at the time, Diana dead was far harder for the monarchy to cope with than Diana living. Ten years ago the crown wobbled in that sea of decomposing flowers, candles, poems and queen of hearts cards. Yet even at the time, reporting on the crowds in Green Park the night before Diana's funeral, I found mainly cheerful trippers there for the spectacle, come to stare at others weeping, bringing their children so they could tell their grandchildren about the great event. Cameras often lied as they focused exclusively on the weepers who cried on cue while mundane comments of the ordinary gawpers fell on the cutting room floor. A myth was created that the whole country had gone mad.

Yet who didn't feel that gut-wrenching, visceral shock at the death of such a beauty mangled in a tunnel by an unsuitable lover's drunken driver? People needed someone other than Diana herself to blame, so Charles, his mother and Diana's "rottweiler", Camilla were obliging scapegoats. For a time, the sheer power of the princess's radiant face was a daily rebuke to them, damaging them deeply.

If now, apart from the obsessive acolytes with altars bedecked with mugs, dolls and tea-towels, the Diana cult is at last over, what was her legacy? A slight unbending in royal etiquette has not left the Windsors looking less alien or stilted on display in peculiar hats yesterday in the Guards Chapel. A BBC poll found 56% said they were "out of touch".

The whole Charles and Diana saga, with its excruciating Squidgy and Tampax tapes of their affairs, ripped a veil or two off royal mystique. When last asked, half the electorate thought the country would be better or no worse off without a monarchy, according to Ipsos Mori. Even if there is no groundswell to make the monarch Elizabeth the Last, this marks a weakening of old bonds.

But what of yesterday's Channel 4 poll, suggesting that a quarter of us still believe Diana was murdered? Sometimes when asked daft questions, it's fun to give daft answers. For how could Buckingham Palace have wanted a dead Diana, saint of celebrity, people's princess up in the firmament with Mother Teresa and Marilyn Monroe, a taunting icon far beyond their control?

Alive, where would she be now? How much more easily the monarchy could have handled her were she now a jaded New York Jackie O, fading slightly at the edges, losing her cachet with a string of ever less appropriate suitors, shopping and bitching in toe-curling interviews, forever betrayed by "friends" and therapists. True or not, how easily Buckingham Palace could have made her seem that way, demolishing her with acid briefings, leaking her expense accounts with rumours of unruliness and belittling of the good she did. Peace would not have broken out in the war of the Windsors. One of her last acts was to visit the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's apartments in Paris, a warning if ever there was one.

But Diana in the sky with diamonds has been untouchable for this last decade. Yesterday they must have hoped it was the last time they will have to kneel before her memory. Requiem in pace (sic), they prayed and they may well have hoped the everlasting light would shine upon her a little less brightly from now on.

    'Whatever that strange spasm of public anguish was 10 years ago, it ended here', G, 1.9.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,,2160308,00.html

Time to move on

August 31, 2007
2:30 PM
The Guardian
Stephen Bates


Few people these days receive memorial services 10 years after their death. In the Middle Ages men built chantries and paid for priests to say annual masses for the repose of their souls in the hope of the forgiveness of their sins and expecting to reduce their time in purgatory, but we don't tend to do that these days in a Protestant country.

For Diana though, things were different. As if catching up on an acknowledged debt, the royal family trooped obediently over to the Guards Chapel this morning to do homage to the woman who might, conceivably, have brought the monarchy low and, maybe, to expiate their sense of guilt. It was the apotheosis of the People's Princess, that strange, moving, flawed but human creature who still skims across the nation's memory.

It was a very establishment occasion, with an air of sorrow and regret certainly but also something of the atmosphere of a society wedding, with large hats for the women and dark suits and regimental ties for the men. These were the rituals of class and privilege, soaked in the lachrymose sentimentality of modern sensibility.

Diana would probably have appreciated the irony: among the congregation were old friends, some from the new aristocracy of show business - Sir Cliff and Sir Elton and Signor Mario - some politicians, Gordon Brown prominent among them, many from charities and some from the old landed gentry; some who appreciated her while she was alive and some who quietly spurned her when she was reduced to the ranks in the last year of her life after her divorce. Absent was not only the third person in her marriage to Prince Charles, his current wife Camilla, but also those of her friends and servants who are now deemed to have committed the social solecism of having spoken about her out of turn and, worse, having profited from her memory.

How many of those attending yesterday's service would still have been her friends, had she lived? How many would have espoused her causes, applauded her behaviour or appreciated her relationships?

Hypocrisy hovered, unacknowledged and unspoken, as it does in so many of the rituals of English life. The service was seemly and moving, conducted by a regimental chaplain and a bishop she little knew and with prayers written by an archbishop she'd probably never heard of, in words given extra ponderousness by being printed up in both modern and the arcane language of thees and thous that the established church adopts when it wants to sound particularly portentous.

We can't know what Diana would have wanted at her memorial service - who prepares for one at the age of 36 unless they are of a peculiarly morbid disposition? - but, as a member of the old aristocracy, she may well have appreciated the recital of the old anthems and the perpetuation of the traditional rituals: Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer, sung to Cwm Rhondda, and I Vow To Thee My Country, sung at her wedding in 1981 and apparently her favourite hymn. She might chuckle to see them all singing them in her memory, their backs upright and their upper lips still stiff.

Was the service appropriate and was there a need to televise it? Yes, probably, for the nation's battered broadcaster to show there are still some things it can do so well. Will there be another such service in another 10 years? Or 20? Is it not time to grieve in quiet tranquility and, maybe, move on from the People's Princess? No more concerts, no more ostentatious grief, no more bouquets hanging limply from the railings of Kensington Palace. Life goes on, even for the royal family. Let Princes William and Harry have their quiet days of memory each August and, maybe, Charles his annual day of guilt, should he be capable of such - but don't let's all share it.

    Time to move on, G, 31.8.2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_bates/2007/08/time_to_move_on.html

4.30pm update

'Guardian, friend and protector'

Friday August 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Peter Walker and agencies

Prince Harry today led tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, on the 10th anniversary of her death with a deeply emotional eulogy describing his mother as a "guardian, friend and protector" to him and Prince William.

"She will always be remembered for her amazing public work," Harry told a memorial service at Guards Chapel, near Buckingham Palace, that was attended by the Queen, Prince Charles and around 500 others.

"But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world," he said, before adding with a slight smile: "We would say that wouldn't we?"

Immediately afterwards, the bishop of London urged people to stop bickering about Diana's memory, a reference in part to the persistent theory that the car crash in the early hours of August 31 1997 that killed Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul was not an accident.

"Still, 10 years after her tragic death, there are regular reports of fury at this or that incident, and the princess's memory is used for scoring points," the Rt Rev Richard Chartres told the congregation. "Let it end here."

At times struggling to contain his emotions, Harry spoke of his and William's feelings about the car crash.

"It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night," he said.

"We both think of her every day," said Harry, now 22 and an army officer. "We speak about her and laugh at all our memories."

The service, largely organised by the princes, was the centrepiece of a series of events marking the anniversary.

The day illustrated that the cult of Diana, while diminished, has by no means disappeared.

While crowds were slow to build outside Wellington Barracks, home to the Guards Chapel, by the time the Queen and Prince Philip arrived to loud cheers, people were pressed dozens deep against barriers along the pavement.

Even late in the afternoon a large throng was gathered around the gates of Kensington Palace, Diana's former home and the site of the biggest outpouring of grief after her death.

Whatever the hopes of the bishop of London, William and Harry, many Britons refuse to accept Diana's death was an accident - shortly before the service began a Channel 4 News poll was released showing that a quarter of Britons still believe Diana was murdered.

The conspiracy theories are most loudly and regularly expressed by Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, who was not invited to the memorial service, although his daughter, Camilla Fayed, attended.

The Harrods owner maintains the crash was engineered by British intelligence officers and the royal family over fears Diana might marry Dodi, a Muslim. Official investigations in both France and the UK concluded that the couple died because their driver was drunk, speeding and had not been trained to drive the heavy armoured Mercedes.

At 11am, staff and shoppers at Harrods observed two minutes' silence. Mr Fayed stood with his head bowed as escalators, televisions and music were switched off.

Some of those inside said they believed Mr Fayed's version of events. "There's definitely something more to it than meets the eye and I think Mr Al Fayed is probably right that the government were involved," said Alison Wormall, who travelled from Nottinghamshire with her mother and two children for the tribute.

As well as Mr Fayed, also notably absent from the main service was the Duchess of Cornwall, who announced last week that she would stay away because her presence would be an unwelcome distraction.

Also not invited were Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, and Patrick Jephson, her former private secretary, both of whom wrote gossipy books about their time with the princess.

Guests included the prime minister, Gordon Brown, and his wife, Sarah; Tony and Cherie Blair; and John Major, another former prime minister, who was a close friend of the princess.

The singers Cliff Richard, Elton John and Bryan Adams attended, and the photographer Mario Testino, along with representatives of dozens of charities supported by Diana, including groups helping vulnerable young people and those with HIV/Aids.

In his address, Mr Chartres spoke about Diana publicly shaking the hand of an Aids patient in 1987 when "fear and prejudice" surrounded the disease.

"Those familiar with the field have no doubt that the princess played a significant part in overcoming a harmful and even a cruel taboo in a gesture which was not choreographed but sprung from a deep identification with those who were vulnerable and on the margin," he said.

The service also included some of the princess's favourite pieces of classical music, as well as a hymn she particularly loved, I Vow To Thee, My Country.

The mood was intended to be as much a celebration of Diana's life as a service of sombre remembrance, something reflected in the guests' outfits, often closer to wedding than funeral attire.

William and Harry, who smiled broadly and laughed as they greeted people on the chapel steps, each wore a blue suit and coloured tie.

Others were more flamboyant - among them Ms Brown, dressed in a vivid lilac coat and matching feathered hat, and the colourfully dressed Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The event is a chance for the princes - who were 15 and 12 when their mother died, and were a solemn, silent presence at her funeral - to remember her in their own way.

    'Guardian, friend and protector', G, 31.8.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,,2159804,00.html

12.45pm

Prince Harry pays tribute

to 'best mother in the world'

Here is the full text of Prince Harry's speech
at today's service to mark the 10th anniversary
of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Friday August 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

William and I can separate life into two parts. There were those years when we were blessed with the physical presence beside us of both our mother and father. And then there are the 10 years since our mother's death.

When she was alive we completely took for granted her unrivalled love of life, laughter, fun and folly. She was our guardian, friend and protector.

She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. She will always be remembered for her amazing public work. But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world.

We would say that wouldn't we. But we miss her. She kissed us last thing at night. Her beaming smile greeted us from school. She laughed hysterically and uncontrollably when sharing something silly she might have said or done that day. She encouraged us when we were nervous or unsure. She, like our father, was determined to provide us with a stable and secure childhood.

To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age, as others have experienced, is indescribably shocking and sad. It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night.

But what is far more important to us now, and into the future, is that we remember our mother as she would have wished to be remembered - as she was: fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine.

We both think of her every day. We speak about her and laugh together at all the memories. Put simply, she made us and so many other people happy. May this be the way that she is remembered.

    Prince Harry pays tribute to 'best mother in the world', G, 31.8.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2160031,00.html

3.15pm

Tributes and tears at Diana crash site

Friday August 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Zoe Lamazou in Paris


At the flame monument near the Pont de l'Alma tunnel where Diana, Princess of Wales, died, there was a scattering of torn-out magazine photos of the people's princess along with bouquets of flowers and scrawled notes. "Rich or poor, everybody loved her," one read.

The diehard Diana fans and tourist groups from Israel and Canada who briefly stopped at this unofficial shrine were perhaps unaware that the golden flame sculpture wasn't for her.

It was created in 1987, a gift from private American donors to celebrate Franco-American friendship. But in the past 10 years it has become the focus for the small groups passing to remember the princess.

Journalists outnumbered wellwishers at the site yesterday as Ukrainian and Korean TV crews broadcast lengthy reports discussing what Diana's memory meant, and recapping the conspiracy theories.

But Dominique de Fontenay planned to stay for the day. He had set up a table covered in red cloth and was distributing flyers while his cat - named Princess, in Diana's honour - purred nearby.

Mr de Fontenay, a 34-year-old events organiser, heads a group of 15 people who for the past three months had been campaigning in Paris for a monument for Diana.

After some coverage in local papers he has raised around €7,000 from 150 donors. But his project to build a memorial will require €150,000, he said.

His friend, Xavier de Fraissinette, a jeweller and sculptor, sketched his plans for a bronze statue of Diana in a suit reaching out to a small child holding a bouquet.

But even if the plans seemed like little more than a heartfelt pipe dream, the handful of passers-by were keen to take part in an emotional moment remembering the princess.

Linda, 43, who works as a nanny in the neighbourhood, burst into tears. "I'm very sad because I'm also remembering my mother who died three years ago," she said.

"I was with her the day I heard Diana was killed in an accident. I am thinking about the princess's poor sons. I know how it feels to lose a mother. You never forget."

Jack Flamant, 85, from the Pyrenees, was visiting friends in Paris and had come down to the Alma bridge to pay his respects.

"I came because she was a great lady, we all remember the good things she did. I think Paris city hall should have laid a wreath. It's a pity they did nothing."

Guy Lesoeurs, who wrote a university thesis about Diana fans' visits to the flame statue, said: "Diana's pilgrims have made this monument theirs. But I agree that the authorities should add a plaque, and they should name the square Diana."

Paul Nowak, a Polish visitor, said he came to the site every year and claimed he had waited outside the Ritz hotel when Diana was in Paris, hoping for an autograph he never got.

He is convinced Diana did not die in the crash and that it was another blonde woman in the car.

But two English women rubbished the conspiracy theories. "Do you believe the Queen killed Diana?" asked a French journalist. "No, we believe the press killed her," came the answer.

    Tributes and tears at Diana crash site, NYT, 31.8.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,,2160089,00.html

Sky says sorry for Diana photos

Friday August 31, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk
Tara Conlan and Ben Dowell


Sky News apologised and expressed "regret" this afternoon for showing the controversial pictures of the late Princess Diana being given oxygen in the Mercedes at the scene of the Paris car crash that killed her.
The broadcaster also promised to review the circumstances leading to the broadcast.

It issued a statement apologising for showing the scenes during a broadcast from US network CBS Evening News in the early hours of this morning, the 10th anniversary of her death.

The first of a series of three black and white photographs showed Diana in the car with no visible injuries, while the second and third photographs showed Diana receiving treatment.

Sky's statement said: "We routinely give UK viewers the opportunity to watch CBS's nightly network news bulletin, as shown to millions of people across the USA.

"In the early hours of Friday morning, Sky News broadcast a CBS bulletin which included an image of the late Princess Diana on the night of her fatal car accident.

"We regret that this image was not highlighted by our pre-broadcast monitoring process and we are reviewing our internal processes as a result.

"We apologise for any offence caused to viewers. The image has not been used on any other part of Sky News' output and we will not repeat the CBS bulletin."

The photos were shown midway through the news in a report that raised the possibility that Diana could have been saved if paramedics had followed US treatment procedures rather than French ones.

Unlike in Channel 4's recent documentary Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel, which contained a single image showing a doctor trying to fit an oxygen mask to Princess Diana's face, in which the whole of her head has been blocked out, in the CBS footage, her face can be seen.

In June, a row broke out over Channel 4's documentary after Princes William and Prince Harry asked the broadcaster not to air pictures of the crash that killed their mother, or its aftermath.

Channel 4 defended the decision, saying a number of the more contentious pictures had already appeared elsewhere, including a BBC Panorama documentary and the front page of the Sun, and that the faces of the victims were never shown.

Most critics agreed the programme had dealt with the subject in a sensitive way and that the images were not as graphic as pre-transmission reports had suggested.

However, the CBS report shows Diana's face clearly.

Sky's broadcast prompted complaints from some viewers, who were not warned the pictures were being aired.

One said: "There were no prior warnings on Sky News that the disturbing photos would be shown."

The report is still running on the website of CBS News.

The news channel decided not to show live coverage of the Diana memorial service today but is airing reports and tributes about the anniversary of her death.

The Princess Diana service of thanksgiving was, however, aired on BBC1, BBC News 24, ITV1, CNN, Fox and EuroNews. Sky News decided not to pay to run the event.

    Sky says sorry for Diana photos, G, 31.8.2007, http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2160141,00.html

Camilla to miss Diana memorial service

Monday August 27, 2007
Guardian
Audrey Gillan

The Duchess of Cornwall has decided she can no longer attend a memorial service to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Clarence House announced yesterday.

Camilla had been invited to the ceremony at the Guards' Chapel in Wellington Barracks in London next Friday by Princes William and Harry but following a public outcry over her agreement to go, she changed her mind.

Campaigners argued that it was inappropriate for the woman blamed by the Princess of Wales for the destruction of her marriage to attend a service in her memory. Protesters threatened to pelt her with eggs if she turned up to take her front-row seat.

Camilla had a long affair with the Prince of Wales while he was married to Diana. In an interview with Panorama, the Princess of Wales said: "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."

In a statement explaining her decision to pull out, Camilla said: "I'm very touched to have been invited by Prince William and Prince Harry to attend the thanksgiving service for their mother Diana, Princess of Wales. I accepted and wanted to support them, however, on reflection I believe my attendance could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion which is to focus on the life and service of Diana. I'm grateful to my husband, William and Harry for supporting my decision."

The Duchess is understood to have been troubled by the situation and, having talked it over with Charles, the princes and her family, decided it would be better not to attend. An aide said: "It was never going to be an easy decision either way."

In an ICM poll, more than half of people surveyed believed that the duchess should not attend the official commemoration.

Camilla was due to be at Charles's side as they joined the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, other members of the Royal Family and Diana's own relatives, the Spencers, for the poignant memorial.

Camilla married her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles at the Guards' Chapel in 1973 when she was 26. She married Prince Charles in April 2005, at the Guildhall in Windsor, becoming HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, though technically she also became the Princess of Wales. Charles and Diana separated in 1993 and Camilla and Andrew filed for divorce in 1994.

It is understood that many of the Princess of Wales's closest friends and confidantes have not been invited to the service. Special prayers, composed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the request of William and Harry, will be delivered and the princess's favourite hymn, I Vow to Thee My Country will be sung.

    Camilla to miss Diana memorial service, G, 27.8.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,,2156871,00.html