Anne, Princess Royal (born 15 August 1950)

Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. At the time of her birth, she was third in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her mother and older brother, Charles. She rose to second after her mother's accession but is 14th in line as of August 2019.

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Anne is known for her charitable work and is a patron of over 200 organisations. She is also known for her Equestrian achievments; she won two silver medals and one gold medal at the European Eventing Championships, and she is the first member of the British royal family to have competed in the Olympic Games. Princess Anne has held the title of Princess Royal since 1987 and is its seventh holder.

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Anne was married to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973; they separated in 1989 and divorced in 1992. They have two children and four grandchildren. In 1992, within months of her divorce, Anne married Commander (now Vice Admiral) Sir Timothy Laurence, whom she had met while he served as her mother's equerry between 1986 and 1989. Since 2012, she has held the rank of Admiral and Chief Commandant of Women in the Royal Navy.

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On 14 November 1973, Anne married Phillips, a lieutenant in the 1st Queen's Dragoon Guards, at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that was televised around the world, with an estimated audience of 100 million. Following the wedding, Anne and her husband lived at Gatcombe Park. He was made acting captain by the start of 1974 when he was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II.

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As was customary for untitled men marrying into the royal family, Phillips was offered an earldom. He declined this offer, and consequently their children were born without courtesy titles. The couple would have two children, Peter (born 1977) and Zara Phillips (born 1981).

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On 31 August 1989, Anne and Phillips announced their intention to separate, as the marriage had been under strain for a number of years. The couple had been rarely seen in public together, and both were romantically linked with other people. They continued to share the custody of their children, and initially announced that "there were no plans for divorce." They eventually divorced on 23 April 1992.  Anne and Phillips have four grandchildren.

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Anne met Timothy Laurence while he was serving on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Their relationship developed in early 1989, three years after he was appointed as an equerry to the Queen. In 1989, the existence of private letters from Laurence to the Princess was revealed by The Sun newspaper.

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Anne married Laurence, then a Commander in the Royal Navy, at Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral Castle, on 12 December 1992. Approximately 30 guests were invited for the private marriage service. The couple chose to marry in Scotland, as the Church of England did not at that time allow divorced persons whose former spouses were still living to remarry in its churches.

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Laurence received no peerage, and the couple leased a flat in Dolphin Square, London. They later gave up this city home and now reside between an apartment at St James's Palace and Gatcombe Park.  Anne has no children by Laurence.

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Aged 21, Anne won the individual title at the European Eventing Championship, and was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971. For more than five years, she also competed with the British eventing team, winning a silver medal in both individual and team disciplines in the 1975 European Eventing Championship, riding the

home-bred Doublet. The following year, Anne participated in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal as a member of the British team, riding the Queen's horse, Goodwill, in Eventing.

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Anne assumed the Presidency of the Fédération Équestre Internationale from 1986 until 1994. In 1987, she became the first member of the royal family to appear as a contestant on a television quiz show when she competed on the BBC panel game 'A Question of Sport'.

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Anne is involved with over 200 charities and organisations in an official capacity. She works extensively for Save the Children, of which she has been president since 1970, and she initiated The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in 1991; her work for the charity takes her all over the world, including many poverty stricken African nations. Anne is the patron of Transaid, a charity founded by Save the Children and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport which aims to provide safe and sustainable transport in developing countries. She is also the Royal Patron of WISE, an organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in science, engineering and construction. Her extensive work for St. John Ambulance as Commandant-in-Chief of St. John Ambulance Cadets has helped to develop many young people, as she annually attends the Grand Prior Award Reception. She is Patron of St. Andrew's First Aid. She is a British representative in the International Olympic Committee as an administrator, and was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

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Kidnapping attempt

On 20 March 1974, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace from a charity event on Pall Mall, their Princess IV car was forced to stop on the Mall by a Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball, jumped out and began firing a pistol. Inspector James Beaton, Anne's personal police officer, responded by exiting the car in order to shield her and to attempt to disarm Ball. However, Beaton's firearm, a Walther PPK, jammed, and he was shot by the assailant, as was Anne's chauffeur, Alex Callender, when he tried to disarm Ball. Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist, also intervened, and was shot in the chest. Ball approached Anne's car and told her that he intended to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, the sum given by varying sources as £2 million or £3 million, which he claimed he intended to give to the National Health Service. Ball told Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied: "Not bloody likely!", and reportedly briefly considered hitting Ball.

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Eventually, she exited the other side of the limousine as had her lady-in-waiting, Rowena Brassey. A passing pedestrian, a former boxer named Ron Russell, punched Ball in the back of the head and led Anne away from the scene. At that point, Police Constable Michael Hills happened upon the situation; he too was shot by Ball, but he had already called for police backup. Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who had been nearby, answered, gave chase, and finally arrested Ball.

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Beaton, Hills, Callender, and McConnell were hospitalised, and all recovered from their wounds. For his defence of Princess Anne, Beaton was awarded the George Cross by the Queen, who was visiting Indonesia when the incident occurred; Hills and Russell were awarded the George Medal, and Callender, McConnell, and Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. Russell also had his mortgage paid off by the Queen.

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Anne visited Beaton in hospital and thanked him for his assistance. In 1984, the princess spoke about the event on Parkinson saying she was 'scrupulously polite' to her would-be kidnapper as she thought it would be 'silly to be too rude at that stage'.

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Ball pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping. He was still detained under the Mental Health Act as of 2019, at Broadmoor Hospital.

Source: wikipedia.com

Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission

Photo: Queensland State Archives / Flickr • Believed to be in the Public Domain

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH Princess Anne, 1970

Princess Anne on a visit to Washington,

Tyne and Wear, 1974

Photo: Ray Bird / Geograph • Licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0

Princess Anne on her horse Goodwill at the

Badminton Horse Trials in 1973

Princess Anne, Trooping the Colour, June 2013

Photo: The United States Army Band / Flickr • Licensed for reuse under CC BY 2.0

Princess Anne and her husband,

Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.

Princess Anne in Paisley, Scotland, 2009

Princess Anne with her brothers, Charles, Andrew

and Edward at the Garter Service, Windsor , 2006