The Lady Di Story
Childhood and teenage years
Diana, Princess of Wales, formerly Lady Diana Frances Spencer, was born on 1 July 1961 at Park House near Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the youngest daughter of the then Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, now the late Earl Spencer and the Hon Mrs Shand-Kydd.
Together with her two elder sisters Jane and Sarah, and her younger brother Charles, the Princess was brought up at her father's house on The Queen's Estate at Sandringham and also at Althorp, the family home in the English Midlands. (The latter is a stately house which dates from 1508.) She was educated first at Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School in Norfolk before going, in 1974, as a boarding pupil to West Heath School near Sevenoaks in Kent. The Princess's education was completed in 1978 at the Institut Alpin Videmanette, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. The following year she moved to a flat in Coleherne Court, London. For a while she looked after the child of an American couple, and she worked as a kindergarten teacher at the Young England School in Pimlico.
Marriage and family
On 24 February 1981 it was officially announced that Lady Diana was to marry The Prince of Wales. They were married at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981 in a ceremony which drew a global television and radio audience estimated at around 1,000 million people, with a further 600,000 lining the route from Buckingham Palace to the Cathedral. She was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the throne for 300 years.
The Princess of Wales had two sons. Prince William was born on 21 June 1982 and Prince Harry on 15 September 1984, both at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, in London.
In December 1992 it was announced that The Prince and Princess of Wales had agreed to separate. They were divorced on 28 August 1996.
The Princess continued to be regarded as a member of the Royal family, and lived at Kensington Palace.
THE ACCIDENT
The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales occurred on Sunday, 31 August 1997
following a car accident in Paris, France. The vehicle in which the Princess was
travelling was involved in a high-speed accident in the Place de l'Alma underpass
in central Paris shortly before midnight on Saturday, 30 August. The Princess was
taken to the La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital, where she underwent two hours of emergency
surgery before being declared dead at 0300 BST.
The Princess's companion, Mr Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the vehicle died in the
accident, whilst a bodyguard was seriously injured.
The Princess's body was subsequently repatriated to the United Kingdom in the evening
of Sunday, 31 August by a BAe 146 aircraft of the Royal Squadron. The Prince of Wales
and the Princess's elder sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes,
accompanied the Princess's coffin on its return journey. Upon arrival at RAF Northolt,
the coffin, draped with a Royal Standard, was removed from the aircraft and transferred
to a waiting hearse by a bearer party from The Queen's Colour Squadron of the RAF.
The Prime Minister was among those in the reception party.
From RAF Northolt the coffin was taken to a private mortuary in London, so that the
necessary legal formalities could be completed. Shortly after midnight, it was moved to
the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, where it lay privately until the funeral on Saturday, 6 September, in Westminster Abbey. The Princess's family and friends
visited the Chapel to pay their respects.
Following the funeral service, the coffin then was taken by road to the family estate at
Althorp for a private interment. The Princess was buried in sanctified ground on an
island in the cente of an ornamental lake.
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