Charles Spencer has taken to social media on the 29th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, sharing a short but moving tribute to his late older sister. Posting photographs of the family seat, Althorp House, the Earl captioned the post: “31 August. My least favourite day.”
A closer view of the photographs show the Spencer family crest on a flag flown at half-mast, a traditional symbol of mourning.
Diana would have turned 65 in July this year.
His post comes ahead of his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, due to be published in September.
Explaining his reasons for writing, Charles said: “With the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death on the skyline, I’ve been inundated yet again with requests for interviews about my sister.
“This has convinced me to write down my own thoughts and memories, once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths that have become accepted over time.
“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral. As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.
“I hope this book will be of interest to the many who still cherish the memory of Diana when she was alive, and I would be delighted if those too young to remember her in her heyday feel – after reading this – that they ‘get’ who she really was: a one-off dynamic character, full of love, charisma and self-doubt, who gave life a hell of a go, and left the world a better place, despite exiting the stage while still so young.”
How did Princess Diana die?
31 August marks the death of Princess Diana during a high-speed car chase in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France. The car was pursued by photographers after leaving the Hôtel Ritz, and the princess died at 4am in the Pitie-Salpêtrière Hospital after going into cardiac arrest as a result of massive chest injuries.
© WireImageThe crash also instantly killed the driver of the car, Henri Paul, and Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, who were pronounced dead at the scene, while Diana’s British bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor of the crash. An inquest found that the driver of the car was speeding and over the legal drink-drive limit.
Diana’s final resting place
Following the tradition of 20 generations of Spencers over five hundred years, the expectation was that Diana would be buried in the family vault in the nearby village of Great Brington. However, fearing for her security, Charles changed plans. He decided to bury his sister on an island in the centre of the Oval Lake near an arboretum containing trees planted by her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
© David GoddardThe decision was a poignant one, as Althorp was Diana’s childhood home, where she lived with her four siblings and the place where she met then-Prince Charles, who visited the estate while dating Diana’s sister Lady Sarah Spencer in 1977.
In 1998, her brother reflected on the private location, which was only accessible for her family via boat. He expressed his intention that the island would “act as a buffer against the interventions of the insane and ghoulish, the thick mud presenting a further line of defence. We all agreed that, with its beauty and tranquillity, this was the place for Diana to be.”
© Alamy Stock PhotoPrince Harry has taken his wife and children to Althorp to visit Diana’s grave, writing in Spare that “no visit to this place was ever easy”.
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