Prince Charles has begun a three-day visit to
Wales and his long-time companion Camilla
Parker Bowles is expected to join him.
The Prince is making a regular summer trip to
Wales, but this is the first time Mrs Parker
Bowles has accompanied him.
Last month she was with the Prince publicly at
a gala dinner in London in aid of one of his
favourite charities.
Mrs Parker Bowles is expected to remain at the
secluded country house Vaynor Park, in
Berriew in Powys.
The Prince has chosen
this venue for his visit
to Wales ahead of the
nearby Powis Castle
where he has stayed in
recent years.
On Friday the Prince
opened the National
Botanical Garden of
Wales in the garden's
centrepiece the Great
Glasshouse designed by
Sir Norman Foster.
The £44m project opened to the public in May
after a three-year gestation period.
"The National Botanical Garden of Wales will be
a much needed champion in the conservation
of plants worldwide," said Prince Charles.
"I do hope that it will play a vital role in
protecting the world's biodiversity."
He continued his tour
with a visit to the War
Memorial Hospital in
Brecon where he spent
more than an hour
chatting to patients.
And at his next stop,
an organic farm at
Llandrindod Wells, the
Prince offered
encouragement to
abattoir owners to
continue pressurising
the Government to
meet the cost of extra EU inspections.
On the second day of his Welsh tour on
Saturday, Prince Charles is to visit
Machynlleth, Caernarfon and Snowdonia.
On Monday he will perform the opening of the
Royal Welsh Show at Builth Wells, and there is
speculation that Camilla Park Bowles will attend
too.
The visit comes as the
government papers
reveal that a campaign
was launched to make
Prince Charles more in
touch with Wales
ahead of his investiture
as Prince of Wales in
1969.
Documents released by
the Public Records
Office show details of
how Buckingham Palace
and the Welsh Office laid plans for the young
Prince to attend a Welsh university, meet
prominent Welsh people, take up residence and
learn the language.
The plans were put into action, with Charles
attending Aberystwyth university to study
Welsh, attaining sufficient fluency to make a
speech in the language.
At the investiture itself the authorities were
braced for nationalist violence, with more than
3,000 police drafted in to guard against hostile
demonstrations.
But the ceremony at Caernarfon Castle on July
1, 1969 sparked only minor incidents and
attracted international interest.
~*~
Officers appeal to Queen to save Forces
hospital(Electronic Telegraph)
By Marie Woolf, Political Correspondent
THE Queen has been asked to intervene to save a convalescent home set up
by Edward VII from being closed by the Government.
The King Edward VII Home forOfficers of the Armed Forces was
established in 1902 at Osborne House, Queen Victoria's summer residence
on the Isle of Wight, by an Act of Parliament. The 60 beds and nursing,
physiotherapy and hydrotherapy facilities were later made available to civil
servants and Service personnel of all ranks, and still offers 15 rooms to
convalescents within the royal house.
But the Department of Culture has decided to close it, despite protests from
Tory MPs and Service personnel. Retired officers on the island have
appealed to the Queen to help save the home for future convalescents. The
Tories, who have asked questions about the closure in Parliament, say the
decision is at odds with health ministers' proposals to use private nursing
homes for "after care" to help free hospital beds. The facilities have been used
by the local NHS Trust.
Peter Ainsworth, shadow culture secretary, said: "This is underhand because
ministers have no idea what they are going to use it for in the future. We have
a good example here of how a heritage building that is open to the public can
serve a valuable social purpose. It's closure is entirely a money-saving
exercise."
Recuperating patients, whose rooms are separate from the public areas, have
spectacular views of Queen Victoria's gardens. Each has private rooms in
Osborne House. The Civil Service Benevolent Fund, a charity which helps
serving and retired government officials, plans to withdraw from its contract to
run the home later this year.
Rosemary Doidge, director of the fund said: "We no longer operate nursing
homes so it is no longer a key part of our activities. What we do is help
people find and fund appropriate nursing homes."
The home costs around £500,000 a year to run and each patient is charged
£470 a week to cover costs. MPs want the Government to allow another
operator to run the historic home and possibly open it further to NHS
patients.
~*~
Royal harpist's arrival strung out for
30 years (UK Times)
BY RICHARD FORD
THIRTY years before the Prince
of Wales appointed his own
personal harpist this year,
Buckingham Palace dismissed the
idea as unwise and archaic,
according to papers released
yesterday by the Public Record
Office at Kew in southwest
London.
The Royal Household feared that
the proposal to revive the post of
harpist to the Queen or Prince of
Wales risked bringing the family
into "ridicule" and threatened to
undermine attempts to modernise
the monarchy.
The appointment of Catrin Finch, 20, from Aberystwyth,
earlier this year has produced no such criticism. Miss Finch,
a student at the Royal Academy of Music, was given a
two-year contract after the Prince heard her play at his 50th
birthday party. Yet in 1968 there was a nine-month
Whitehall struggle to block the appointment. It was just one
of a series of behind-the-scenes tussles that surrounded the
investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales at
Caernarfon Castle in 1969, but it was the one that took up
most time.
Whitehall officials were sent to consult the Dictionary of
Welsh Biography, the libraries in Cardiff, universities and the
Royal Academy after the Honourable Society of
Cymrodorion wrote suggesting Osian Ellis as candidate for
the post.
Officials were unclear as to whether the post was a genuine
Crown appointment, though it discovered that John Thomas
had been harpist to Queen Victoria and Edward Jones
harpist to the Prince of Wales between 1794 and 1796. The
file notes that Mr Jones died destitute.
George Thomas, the then Minister of State at the Welsh
Office, backed the appointment for "sentimental" reasons,
despite being told that it would be a matter of indifference to
many Welsh people. He was also told that the appointment
was inconsistent with the efforts that Buckingham Palace was
making to reduce ancient and irrelevant Royal Household
offices
He was undeterred, but his enthusiasm was not matched by
Civil Servants in his own department. A note from one, D.
Morgan, in July 1968, said that while the idea had a certain
quaint appeal, it was not a suitable symbol of the image of
Wales or the Royal Family.
He wrote: "Wales as a land of harpists and bards, stovepipe
hats and similar paraphernalia has long gone, but this
conception unfortunately persists abroad and even in
England, partly because of out-of-date souvenirs. As a result
many people do not think of Wales as a country where
modern technologically based industry can flourish or
sophisticated entertainment can be found."
Mr Morgan noted that during a recent visit Prince Charles
had concentrated on the way that the Welsh people worked
and lived now "rather than on past customs". Five months'
later Downing Street finally blocked the idea.
Yesterday Miss Finch, who will get £2,500 in expenses,
denied the post was open to derision. "Only my friends find it
funny," she said.
"The Prince is trying to promote young, Welsh talent. The
harp has moved on, too. I play modern music on a modern
instrument. What is important is to bring the harp into the
21st century."