A castle where the Queen Mother spent most
of her childhood has continued her 100th
birthday celebrations by staging a concert.
More than 6,000 people gathered at Glamis
Castle, near Forfar, Angus, to hear a
performance by the National Symphony
Orchestra of Scotland.
The Queen Mother was not present to see
them perform Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture,
complete with cannons, and music from Swan
Lake.
The orchestra also gave the first public
performance of the Glamis Castle Waltz -
written in 1912 for the Countess of
Strathmore, the Queen Mother's mother.
Castle administrator
Colonel Patrick
Cardwell-Moore said the
Queen Mother is held in
high affection in the
area.
"She's their local
celebrity, quite frankly,"
he said.
"She spent all of her childhood here and she
still comes back on a regular basis and she's
associated with local charities."
The Queen Mother has always maintained
close links with the castle since her first visit
at the age of three.
When her grandfather died in 1904, her father
inherited the castle and estate.
As a teenager Elizabeth Bowes Lyon and her
family spent the whole of the First World War
at Glamis.
She and her sisters helped nurse wounded
British soldiers at the castle, which was
converted into a hospital.
The Queen Mother
celebrated her
centenary on Friday
with more than 40,000
well-wishers outside
Buckingham Palace.
She rounded off her
day with a trip to the
Opera House, in Covent
Garden, London, to see
the Kirov Ballet dance
a mixed programme by
the legendary Russian
choreographer Mikhail
Fokine.
Staff at the Queen Mother's summer home at
the Castle of Mey in Caithness are waiting to
give her post-birthday greetings when she
arrives on Monday for her annual break.
The Queen Mother is expected to arrive by air
at Wick Airport in the early afternoon.
During her stay, she is expected to make her
normal visits to an art exhibition in Thurso and
the annual Highland Games at Mey, a stone's
throw away from the castle.
~*~
Anne to be given Order of the
Thistle (UK Sunday Times)
Christopher Morgan and Joe Perry
THE Queen is planning to confer the Order of the Thistle,
Britain's second oldest order of chivalry, on the Princess Royal.
The Thistle is Scotland's highest honour and conferring it will
acknowledge Princess Anne's deep commitment to the
country.
By conferring an honour which ranks second in precedence
only to the Order of the Garter, the Queen will show her
appreciation of her daughter's royal duties and extensive
charitable work. She has chosen St Andrew's Day on
November 30 - when it is traditional to announce new members
of the order - to give a reception at Windsor Castle for
organisations associated with Anne. The princess will be 50
next week, on August 15.
Anne was lord high commissioner, the Queen's appointed
representative to the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland, in 1996. She observed the proceedings of the annual
assembly, held in Edinburgh, and addressed the meeting.
Marjory MacLean, a Church of Scotland minister who is depute
clerk to the general assembly, said the princess "engaged very
much with what the assembly was doing. When she addressed
the assembly it was with a great humour and warmth". She
added that Anne "seems pretty clued up about things here".
Anne regularly visits Scotland and has been patron of the
Scottish Rugby Union for 11 years. She attends many games
at Murrayfield, and supports Scotland whenever they play
England at home. Created Princess Royal in 1987, Anne is one
of the most popular members of the royal family. She was
made a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year, and was
recently appointed colonel of the Blues and Royals, one of two
regiments of Household Cavalry.
Historians are uncertain about the origins of the Order of the
Thistle. One legend has it that it was founded in the 9th century
by Achaius, a king of what would now be Scotland, but
scholars believe it was founded by James III, who reigned from
1460-1488.
It was only in 1987 that ladies were allowed in. An exception
was made in the reign of George VI when his consort, Queen
Elizabeth - now the Queen Mother - became a Lady of the
Thistle.
A service for the order is held once a year at a chapel adjacent
to St Giles's Cathedral in Edinburgh while the Queen is in
residence at the Palace of Holyrood House.
In 1994, the Queen appointed Anne a Lady of the Order of the
Garter. The Duke of Edinburgh became a Knight of the Thistle
in 1952, and the Prince of Wales was made a Knight of the
Thistle during the Queen's silver jubilee in 1977. The former lord
chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, was appointed to the
order in 1997.
~*~
How many girls does a prince need? (Uk Sunday Times)
When a 40-year-old man starts hanging out in nightclubs with
nubile women half his age there is only one reason: midlife
crisis. Prince Andrew, who has made himself look faintly
ridiculous by haunting London's latest hot spots, is, it seems,
the latest victim of this sad affliction.
The Duke of York has been having a busy season. In the past
few months he has been romantically linked with a former Miss
USA, two supermodels and a professional golfer (female), and
has taken to going out almost every night to grim clubs -
sweaty, noisy and packed with drunken teenagers - such as
Rock on London's Embankment.
A week ago a heavily perspiring prince was pictured leaving the
louche China White club in Soho (a favourite haunt of such
night-time lushes as the Gallagher brothers) wearing an
open-necked shirt and jeans. He had spent the evening with
Caroline Stanbury, a public relations girl 16 years his junior with
whom he was reported to be "besotted".
The Duke of York's dual existence was highlighted only a few
days later when this time he was photographed in St Tropez
accompanied by his daughters, his former wife, Sarah
Ferguson, and a jet ski. Suddenly Andrew the party animal was
replaced by the prince as devoted dad and bizarrely amicable
former spouse - how many other once-married couples holiday
together and sit chummily knee to knee in a tiny dinghy?
This is perhaps explained by a comment once made by Susan
Barrantes, his former mother-in-law. "Andrew has a heart of gold
- to the point where he would be without money himself to help
someone. But he has not got any character. Absolutely none."
And as an aristocratic dinner companion of his says: "Andrew is
nothing without a woman. He's sweet, but also rather clunky
and gauche. He needs someone who knows what she wants
and who can navigate his life for him." No wonder he goes on
sharing his home with Fergie.
Last week the plot thickened even further when he was
photographed in St Tropez in a pair of baggy golf shorts on the
beach with another blonde socialite who was initially mistaken
for Stanbury. While everyone jumped to conclusions,
Buckingham Palace wearily pointed out that the St Tropez
Blonde, whom the prince had never met before, was not
Stanbury the London Blonde, who wasn't his girlfriend anyway.
So who is Prince Andrew dating? "I'm not saying, but it
definitely isn't her," said a palace official, coolly.
Could it be Christy Turlington, who shared a booth with him at
another London haunt, the Met Bar, in May? Or perhaps the
former beauty queen Julie Hayek, with whom he enjoyed a tryst
in June? Or even Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of the
disgraced newspaper tycoon, who cosied up to Andrew over
lunch in April, while he was supposed to be "madly in love" with
her friend, the PR girl Emma Gibbs?
It is all eerily reminiscent of the early 1980s - 20 years ago now
- when Randy Andy the dashing naval officer squired Koo Stark
around town and had a girl in every port. Even his friends
concede that since he turned 40 in February, Andrew has
become what they term, kindly, a "serial romantic".
Ever since the duke chose to spend the eve of his birthday
sharing a romantic supper at Buckingham Palace with the
underwear model Caprice Bourret, he has been playing out his
midlife crisis in the full glare of publicity.
"We call them the Yorkie Girls," said one royal watcher.
"Andrew's hectic romantic schedule has perked up the royal
soap opera no end. Charles and Camilla are an unphotogenic,
middle-aged couple, Edward and Sophie are too square and
dreary for words, but Andrew has been going for it all summer.
It's been nonstop lens candy."
A former navy friend of Andrew's agrees. "It's no secret that he
can't resist a pretty girl, and they seem to like him. After all, if a
handsome prince asks you out to supper, you're not going to
refuse, even if he is a bit thick."
Many other ageing men will surely envy Andrew. But his dates
are often arranged by his former girlfriends.
His former duchess also introduces him to women - as long as
they are non-threatening. When the duke's relationship with the
public relations executive Aurelia Cecil appeared to be getting
too serious in the autumn of 1998, Fergie introduced Andrew to
Heather Mann, a South African ex-model employed as a
"business-getting" operative in the gem department at Christie's.
Within weeks Cecil had had enough, and they broke up.
Stanbury, who has been introducing Andrew to London's
nightclub scene this summer, is a typical Yorkie Girl: well
connected (her godmother is Susan Ferguson, Fergie's
stepmother) fun-loving, and undemanding. But she is clearly
pursuing her own agenda.
"Nobody knows who she is, but everyone recognises her from a
hundred parties," says a society magazine editor. "Basically,
she's just having fun with a rich, famous, middle-aged man. She
is seeing the prince for the same reason she dated Sylvester
Stallone. Caroline is a real party girl and craves attention."
Inevitably, many of Andrew's girlfriends are ambitious parvenus
and ravenous for publicity. It is surely no coincidence that at
least two with whom he has been "linked" in the past couple of
years - Mann and Hayek - have also "dated" Prince Albert of
Monaco, Europe's other fortysomething playboy prince.
Is he making a fool of himself? Well, as one royal watcher put it:
"The guy's a walking cliché. He's got the ex-wife and children at
home, and meanwhile he's running around with a load of girls."
Revealingly, Andrew is not seen as a great draw by the clubs he
frequents. A spokesman for China White was keen to talk up
customers such as Madonna and Guy Ritchie, Brad Pitt,
Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, but conspicuously failed
to mention Andrew. When I asked her, there was a deadly
silence.
Rock's owner, Piers Adam, the nightlife impresario and friend of
Camilla's son, Tom Parker Bowles, was also circumspect about
his royal reveller. "Andrew's been here once or twice with
Caroline, but I don't really like to play that up," he said. Since
Adam never shies from talking about how his other bars are
frequented by groovier royals such as Freddie Windsor and
Prince William, I asked whether he wasn't talking because the
duke wasn't cool enough. "Erm, no comment," he said, adding
that he was, "keen to project the right image". Indeed.
The prince's behaviour is all the more surprising given the efforts
he has made to improve his public profile from a golf bore to
family man and committed charity campaigner. Maybe it was all
getting a little too grown-up. Not any more.