Latest news with #DukeofEdinburgh
Telegraph
a day ago
- General
- Telegraph
Duke of Edinburgh backs plans to restore Battle of Waterloo gardens
The Duke of Edinburgh is backing a £1.3 million campaign to restore the gardens at Hougoumont in Belgium, the chateau farm defended by the Coldstream and Scots Guards against overwhelming odds during the Battle of Waterloo. Prince Edward was due to visit the site on Friday, two days after the 210th anniversary of the battle, at which the Duke of Wellington's allied forces vanquished Napoleon's Grande Armée on June 18 1815. The Duke will arrive at the farm via the north gate, where Britain's Foot Guards repelled a French incursion led by an axe-wielding lieutenant. Wellington later declared: 'The success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont.' The farm and gardens were devastated during the battle, which left 50,000 dead and wounded. While some of the buildings at Hougoumont, a strategically vital defensive bastion on the right of Wellington's line, were restored for the bicentenary of the battle, the remains of the chateau were kept as a ruin and the gardens were never replanted. Now, the Friends of the Hougoumont Gardens group is leading a fundraising campaign to restore them to the way they would have looked in 1815. 'We're extremely pleased that the Duke of Edinburgh is coming here to back the new initiative and hope his presence will act as a multiplier for support,' Baron Alexander de Vos van Steenwijk, the group's Brussels-based Dutch chairman, told The Telegraph. The Duke, who is Colonel of the Scots Guards, will lay a wreath at the Closing the Gates memorial. The memorial was unveiled in 2015 by King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales, in the presence of Charles Wellesley, the 9th Duke of Wellington and Prince of Waterloo, together with Prince Charles Bonaparte, a descendant of Prince Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother. The Friends of the Hougoumont Gardens (Les Amis des Jardins d'Hougoumont) is administered by the Fondation Roi Baudouin, a royal charity in Belgium. The replanting scheme, overseen by François Goffinet, a renowned garden architect, has already received €1.1 million (£950,000) towards its €1.5 million target. This came mostly from the local Walloon regional government and guarantees that restoration work can begin next year. The project has four elements – reconstructing the French-style formal garden with its symmetrical patterns, restoring the kitchen vegetable garden on the west side of the farm, replanting the large orchard, which was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting, and creating a new, fourth garden on wetland beyond the north gate. 'We know how the gardens looked before the battle because there were many depictions of Hougoumont from the time. We've also worked with archaeologists who have carried out research which shows how and where the trees were planted in the orchard,' said Baron de Vo. 'The new garden, which we're calling a 'biosphere', will show off the wonders of the natural world. 'The idea is to experiment with new species of plants, to encourage insect life and create an educational space for schools and families to visit. 'A 'tree of peace', grown from the seeds of a sapling rescued after the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, will also be planted during the Duke of Edinburgh's visit.' Michael Mitchell, a retired British consultant who served in the Grenadier Guards and lives near the battlefield, is among those closely involved with the planned garden restoration, due to be completed in 2027. 'We have secured around 80 per cent of the funding required and aim to raise the rest through individual donations. It's a very sustainable project,' he said. Kléber Rossillon, a French heritage company that manages the battlefield site, including the Waterloo Memorial museum, has pledged to provide four gardeners to ensure the upkeep of the gardens.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
The wry comment the Queen made when she saw newborn Prince William - and why he was known as 'baby Wales'
The birth of an heir is a time for national celebration. Street parties were held, commemorative plates were made and broadcasting was paused for the royal announcement. Baby Wales, as he was known for his first few days, was born at around 9pm on June 21, 1982, weighing 7lb 1oz. The most dedicated members of the press and public gathered outside St. Mary's Hospital and Buckingham Palace, where a notice announcing the birth was placed. Everyone was desperate to catch a glimpse of the future king before anyone else. But the late Queen, known for her wry sense of humour, had one concern on her mind. Andrew Morton wrote in his book Diana: Her True Story: 'When the Queen came to visit her grandchild the following day her comment was atypical. 'As she looked at the tiny bundle she said drily: "Thank goodness he hasn't got ears like his father."' Prince Charles was born with large ears compared to his head, which have become one of his most well-known and ridiculed features. The late Duke of Edinburgh reportedly said baby Charles looked like a 'plum pudding' when he was a baby. Diana had been a difficult pregnancy - and an even more challenging delivery. Morton wrote: 'During her labour Diana's temperature soared dramatically, which in turn gave rise to concern for the baby's health.' She was in labour for 16 hours and she was attended to by the Queen's own surgeon, George Pinker, who also oversaw her pregnancy. Morton wrote that Diana was continually sick and at one point Mr Pinker and his fellow doctors considered performing an emergency Caesarean operation. But in the end Diana was given an epidural and gave birth naturally. Charles was by her side during the delivery and she gave birth standing up with her husband holding her, as advised by natural childbirth activist Sheila Kitzinger. The news of the royal birth made the front page of the national papers Diana's birth would be a complete contrast to the Queen's reflection that, with modern anaesthesia, birth had become 'a sleep and a forgetting'. While Diana enjoyed the experience of having her husband by her side, she later recounted the 'disappointment' Charles felt when Harry was born and not a daughter. And then came choosing a name. Morton wrote: 'Charles wanted to call his first son Arthur and his second Albert, after Queen Victoria's consort. 'William and Harry were Diana's choices while her husband's preferences were used in their children's middle names.' Baby Wales' name was chosen after William the Conqueror, victor of the famed Battle of Hastings in 1066. He was christened William Arthur Philip Louis. His second name came from the legendary King of the Round Table, his grandfather inspired third name and the name Louis rounds out the mix - a name he has since passed down to his second son. But not everyone shared the good news. Prince Charles (pictured right in 1949) was born with large ears compared to his head, which have become one of his most well-known features Morton wrote: 'William and Harry were Diana's choices while her husband's preferences were used in their children's middle names' Despite now being thought of as Charles's right-hand woman, Princess Anne and Charles went through a challenging period in their relationship. According to the book Battle of Brothers by Robert Lacey, Anne's 'notorious frostiness seemed to grow a couple of degrees chillier whether the subject of Diana came up'. Anne appears to have been unreceptive when told that Diana had given birth to Prince William in June 1982. The princess had been touring Indian reservations in New Mexico for Save the Children when a reporter asked for her reaction to the good news. 'I didn't know she had one,' the princess snapped. Another reporter tried with: 'Do you think everyone is making too much fuss of the baby?' 'Yes,' came the curt response. At the time, says Lacey, Anne was undertaking more than 200 engagements a year compared with Diana's 50 and only 90-plus for Charles. Anne and Charles got on well as children and are pictured in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in September 1952 According to Lacey, a Palace insider explained as follows: 'Anne works very hard and sees her sister-in-law picking up the glory. She's sick to the back teeth with it all.' The depth of the ill-feeling was exposed soon afterward when, although Anne had asked Charles to be a Godparent to her first child, Peter Phillips, the compliment was not reciprocated. Anne was not invited to be William's Godmother and was not on the list when it came to Prince Harry's turn to be baptised in 1984. William's godparents instead included King Constantine II of Greece and Princess Alexandra of Kent. His christening took place in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace on August 4, 1982, on the 82nd Birthday of his great-grandmother the Queen Mother. William reportedly cried through the entire photoshoot as he was only a month old. Diana gave an emotional account of the day to Morton a decade later in 1992, remembering the event in the context of the breakdown in her marriage. 'Nobody asked me when it was suitable for William,' she said. '11 o'clock couldn't have been worse. Endless pictures of the queen, queen mother, Charles and William. I was excluded totally that day.' As Harry was carried to the font at St George's chapel, Windsor, Anne was out with her husband in the Gloucestershire countryside - shooting rabbits. Charles and Diana are pictured at home with William in December 1982 For as long as possible William was allowed to grow up not knowing that his future was already mapped out for life. He was a boisterous child, briefly known as 'Basher Billy' at nursery school. But it could not have been long before a sensitive child such as William came to understand there was something different about his own life. As he teaches his own children, George, Charlotte and Louis, about their roles within the Firm, he will be all too aware of the pressure they will face. But even the most senior royals are able to crack a joke when the time comes. The late Queen made a similar quip when she was asked about Prince George's impending arrival back in 2013. While visiting the Lake District days before her great-grandson arrived, the monarch met a group of students who eagerly asked her what gender she hoped the new baby would be.
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Revealed: The bizarre way King Charles' grandmother found out about his birth from a remote Greek island
King Charles ' grandmother was living on a remote Greek island when the future monarch was born and found out about his birth through a telegram, a royal biographer has revealed. Princess Alice, the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh, was reportedly thrilled when she finally received the news of her grandson's birth. As a member of the Greek Royal Family, Alice had spent the whole of Second World War in Athens but by 1948 she was living on Tinos - a tiny island in the Aegean sea where she had no access to a telephone. According to Ingrid Seward, a royal biographer, she wrote back to Prince Philip immediately after she received the news of the royal birth. In the telegram, she wrote: 'I think of you so much with a sweet baby of your own, of your joy and the interest you will take in all his little doings. 'How fascinating nature is, but how one has to pay for it in the anxious trying hours of confinement.' Alice would remain in Greece for a further 20 years before she returned to the UK in 1967. The princess's life is one of the most remarkable in the history of the Royal Family. A future King Charles III when he was a baby. According to Ingrid Seward, a royal biographer, she wrote back to Prince Philip immediately after she received the news of the royal birth Princess Alice of Battenberg was born Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Mary on February 25, 1885, at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was born congenitally deaf but could speak clearly and lip read in several languages. While at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, she met and fell in love with Prince Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece - a year later the couple were wed. Alice married into the Greek Royal Family at a tumultuous time with the family exiled from the country in 1921, the same year Prince Philip was born. By 1930 she was hearing voices and believed she was having intimate relationships with Jesus and other religious figures. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic before being treated by Sigmund Freud at a clinic in Berlin. When Charles' grandmother was released from the the sanatorium in 1932, she drifted between modest German B&Bs before she eventually returned to Athens following the restoration of the Greek monarchy. Alice then found herself stranded in Nazi-occupied Greece throughout the Second World War. Due to her links to Germany, with her cousin serving as German ambassador to Greece until the start of the occupation, the Nazi soldiers wrongly assumed Alice was sympathetic to their cause. Instead when a general asked Alice if there was anything he could do for her, she bravely responded: 'You can take your troops out of my country.' During the war, she was instrumental in aiding the escape from Greece of several Jews. Alice even hid a Jewish family, the Cohen's, on the top floor of her home, just yards away from Gestapo headquarters. When the Gestapo became suspicious and questioned the Princess, she used her deafness as an excuse not to answer their questions and prevented them from entering her property. Following the war, diamonds were used from Alice's tiara so Philip could present a ring to Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen. Alice sold the rest of her jewels to create her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, in 1949, becoming a nun. She went on to build a convent and orphanage in a poor suburb of Athens. The royal remained in Greece until 1967, when there was a Greek military coup. Alice refused to leave the country until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home. She spent the final years of her life living at Buckingham Palace with her son and daughter-in-law before she died in December 1969, aged 84. The last few months of her life were fictionalised in the third season of Netflix's The Crown, played by Jane Lapotaire. The series incorrectly suggested she gave a tell-all interview with the Guardian, covering topics about her mental health condition. Shortly before her death, she wrote a heartbreaking letter to her only son, that read: 'Dearest Philip, Be brave, and remember I will never leave you, and you will always find me when you need me most. All my devoted love, your old Mama.' In 1994, 25 years after Alice's death, her son attended a ceremony in Jerusalem to honour his mother, who is buried in a crypt at Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. In honour of her courage during the war, when she saved her friends, the Cohen family, from certain death, she was given the title of Righteous Among The Nations. Prince Philip said: 'I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She was a person with deep religious faith and she would have considered it to be a totally human action to fellow human beings in distress.'
Daily Record
02-06-2025
- General
- Daily Record
Tree planted at Drumpellier Country Park in memory of beloved member of Coatbridge community
Former teacher Jim McCormack supported hundreds of young people to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh award. A tree has been planted at Drumpellier Country Park in memory of a beloved member of the Coatbridge community. Jim McCormack supported hundreds of young people to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh award. A popular former geography teacher at St Ambrose and Chryston high schools, Jim was also a Duke of Edinburgh supervisor and assessor with North Lanarkshire Council's Community Learning and Development service. He worked with local groups and additional support needs schools, teaching navigation and campcraft skills to help young people complete their expeditions as part of the award. Jim also helped develop outdoor learning and expeditions for pupils across North Lanarkshire, and was a member of St Andrew's Orienteering Club. North Lanarkshire Provost Kenneth Duffy joined Jim's family, friends, colleagues and Father Michael Kane from St Augustine's in Coatbridge to plant the memorial tree. Provost Duffy said: 'This is a fitting tribute to Jim who loved nature and the outdoors and was passionate about helping young people to explore and appreciate our environment.' Jim was a keen champion of the Duke of Edinburgh award, which is a prestigious youth achievement program designed to challenge young people aged 14-24 to develop personal skills, achieve their potential, and make a positive impact on their communities. It involves completing a series of activities in four areas: volunteering, skills, physical recreation and expedition, with a residential section for Gold-level participants.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Losing the right to wild camp on Dartmoor would have been unthinkable'
Jolyon Chesworth is fondly remembering the last time he wild camped on Dartmoor with his family. His children Max and Barney were running around, climbing rocks and swimming in pools. They were, he says, truly free. 'That sense of adventure and connection to the landscape is so important,' says Chesworth. 'The simple act of finding a place to sleep, having something to eat and just chatting together in almost unimaginable space… they absolutely love being on Dartmoor. 'So the potential loss of all these incredible benefits would have been unthinkable.' Yet such a loss was, until last week, something Chesworth and many families like his were preparing for. So they were overjoyed when the Supreme Court backed wild camping on Dartmoor, marking the end of a long argument about whether pitching a tent under the stars in the Devon national park was permissible and, possibly, the start of a wider debate about what public access might mean in other parts of the country. There is no general right to wild camp on most private land in England, but an exception was made for set areas of Dartmoor Commons in 1985. Over the decades, it's become a haven for Duke of Edinburgh's Award trips and the famous Ten Tors challenge. For Chesworth, wild camping in the area has offered 'an opportunity to connect to nature, and to people past, present and future who are doing the same thing'. Campaigners, meanwhile, say the battle raises a wider problem over access rights. The legal wrangle over the park began in 2022, when landowners Alexander and Diana Darwall challenged the right to wild camp on their 4,000-acre estate on Stall Moor. They noted the 'potential harm' caused by campers, including litter, fires and threats to their livestock. But the crux of their case hinged on whether a specific section of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 conferred on the public a right to camp there overnight. Campaigners were quick to take note. Lewis Winks, from the group Right to Roam, recalls a handful of activists gathering in a Devon pub shortly afterwards to plot their response. 'We called our campaign The Stars Are for Everyone, because as Devon locals we made use of these wild camping rights regularly – I took my daughter up on Stall Moor and she loved it,' he says. 'It seemed absolutely ludicrous that somebody should be able to snatch that away.' Winks adds there was widespread belief among campaigners that the Darwalls' case would collapse. 'There were many people… who just didn't think Dartmoor was going to be lost,' he says. But it was. In January 2023, a High Court ruling set out that the 1985 Act 'does not confer on the public any right to pitch tents or otherwise make camp overnight on Dartmoor Commons'. 'Any such camping requires the consent of the landowner,' the ruling stated. 'It was at this moment we really saw a lot of people stand up and say, 'this is a tragedy',' says Winks. 'Actually it had far-reaching effects beyond the Darwalls' estate. It meant a loss of wild camping rights across the whole of Dartmoor as they had existed.' A week after the High Court ruling in 2023, thousands of people met on Stall Moor to protest. Meanwhile the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) had to work quickly with other landowners to put in place agreements to license their land for use by wild campers. Basically, the DNPA had to pay the landowners to allow people to camp. 'It was fairly panicked,' says Winks. 'Long term it would have been unworkable as a system, too, because of all the individual licences. The issue for us was that permission couldn't be a replacement for rights.' Dr Kevin Bishop, chief executive of DNPA, remembers that time slightly differently. 'It was testament to some of the Commons owners that we managed to develop that system so quickly – and it was mainly so we could get Ten Tors to go ahead, which the majority of landowners wanted,' he says. 'There were some who thought that system would be fine going forward, but it was always clear to us that the Commons Act creates a right of access on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation. We've always interpreted open-air recreation broadly, whereas the Darwalls didn't.' So the DNPA appealed, with the support of other campaign groups such as the Open Spaces Society (OSS) in 2023. Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the OSS, knows more about access on Dartmoor than most; in 1985 she was Anthony Steen MP's research assistant as he piloted the Dartmoor Commons Bill through Parliament. 'In every other legislation that grants access, you get a schedule of things that the access doesn't include, and camping is usually listed,' she says. 'So for it not to be listed in the Dartmoor Commons Act was an indication that it should be permitted. For us, it was as simple an argument as that.' The other reason the OSS and others were concerned was that the terminology used in the High Court ruling could have had ramifications way beyond wild camping. It might have led to a situation where open-air recreation on Dartmoor was restricted to activities undertaken while on foot or in the saddle. Bathing, sketching, rock climbing, even bird watching or fishing could have been seen as trespass. As Bishop puts it, at the extreme end of this interpretation, 'you couldn't even have stopped for a picnic'. The general consensus is that some of these interpretations were so farcical, they actually helped the appeal. And in July 2023, the Appeal Court ruled that the law 'confers on members of the public the right to rest or sleep on the Dartmoor Commons, whether by day or night and whether in a tent or otherwise… provided the bylaws are adhered to'. But, in turn, the Darwalls themselves immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, with the first hearings taking place in October 2024. In written submissions their legal representatives said the couple were 'not motivated by a desire to stop camping on Dartmoor'. Instead, they talked of campers not observing the 'leave no trace' rule and campfires leading to habitat destruction. Is there merit in at least some of these arguments? The last time Chesworth was wild camping on Dartmoor, he remembers being woken by fireworks at 3.30am. The next day, his boys picked up the revellers' rubbish on their way back home. 'With this sense of freedom and access comes responsibility and a need for stewardship,' he says. 'One of the reasons I like taking my children out there is that it teaches them that responsibility. It's like school, but more fun. 'What I would say though is that there's a big distinction between wild, backpack camping and fly camping, where people are bringing family tents and disposable barbecues and pitching up at the edge of a car park.' On local forums, there is much speculation that it is 'townies' who are going to Dartmoor with their crates of beer and fireworks and wrecking it. Right to Roam says it is aware that encouraging wider access to natural spaces does come with the potential for abuse. That's why the group developed the concept of 'Wild Service', where responsible access means respecting privacy, crops and nature while seeking to leave a positive trace and practising deep care for the natural world. The Darwalls, for their part, remain unconvinced that access translates to guardianship. The couple said they were 'disappointed' by the Supreme Court's judgment. 'Hollowing out the role of landowners and farmers will not improve the vitality of the Dartmoor Commons,' they said. 'Our aim from the outset was to protect and preserve Dartmoor, its flora and fauna.' Meanwhile, others are keen to see the outcome set a precedent for the rest of England. In opposition, Labour pledged to create a widespread right to roam policy if elected but U-turned after facing opposition from some landowners. The OSS and Right To Roam are now calling on officials to 'step up' and pass an act that can protect and extend public rights of access to nature across England. If wild camping is allowed on Dartmoor, then why not elsewhere, they argue. 'If Darwall vs Dartmoor is to be a truly landmark decision, the Government must act to ensure a right to sleep under the stars applies to all national parks and wild country,' says Ashbrook. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
