National Grief :Death of Princess Diana of Wales

 

Princess Diana's funeral: Secrets revealed as tensions mounted over burial plans

Intimate details have emerged about the days following Diana's death giving a rare insight into the workings of her funeral 

  

24 years ago today , the nation united in grief after Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.

And details about the days following Diana's death giving a rare insight into the workings of her funeral.

Princes William and Harry only agreed to walk behind her coffin at the 11th hour after being persuaded by their father who wanted to walk.

Prince Philip intervened in arrangements to make sure the two young princes were taken care of.

And two of Diana's closest aides were forced to create a make-shift morgue as soaring August temperatures meant the room her body was being stored in became unbearably hot and exposed to phot

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Princess Diana(Getty)

Members of the Spencer family along with Prince Charles, Prince William and Harry watch as Princess Diana's coffin is placed in the hearse(Mirrorpix)

The funeral of Princess Diana.(David Cruickshanks / Mirrorpix)

Timeline of events on the day Diana died

Prince Harry's poignant request

How news broadcasters reported death

As news of her shock death spread on the morning of August 31 the National Grid recorded a power surge as kettles and televisions were turned on at the same time.

Church attendances soared as did calls to suicide lines.

The Queen is said to have reacted when hearing the news from her private secretary that she thought someone must have "greased the brakes" on her car.

Prince Charles and Diana's sisters travelled to France to get her body(Rex Features)

Her sons were allowed to sleep in rather than be woken and told but such was the Royal Family concern for them that mentions of Diana were banned from the church service at Balmoral that day.

The Queen ordered all TVs or radios in her residence in Balmoral to be moved or hidden for fears the princes might be traumatised by hearing details of their mother's death.

When Prince Charles said he wanted to go and collect his ex-wife's body from Paris the Queen initially barred him from taking the Royal Flight private plane while Prince Harry, who was just 12, begged to accompany his dad but was told to stay at home.

Diana's butler Paul Burrell revealed he first realised something was wrong when Diana didn't answer her phone, he said: "Diana always had a mobile phone in her handbag, so I rang her phone and it rang and rang and rang, and I thought 'it's very strange because she always answers her phone'."

He along with Colin Tebbutt, Diana's chauffeur and security consultant, travelled to Paris to make arrangements for her repatriation.

Burrell described visiting Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital where Diana died and seeing her body, adding: "I honestly thought entering that room and looking at her she is not really dead, it's just a joke, a very silly joke and you can wake up."

A woman lays flowers at the entrance to the road underpass where Princess Diana was mortally injured in a car crash.(Reuters)

Prince Harry and his mother(UK Press)

Quickly we called in blankets and I standing on the chair put blankets up on the windows which made the room twice as hot.

"I noticed that hair of the princess was moving which were fans I had put in the room, and just for that massive minuscule of a second thought was she alive which was a silly thing to think.

"The Prince came up to me and thanked me for being there and asked if there were any members of the clergy there and Paul went and got the two vicars and the two vicars and sisters went into the room and the door was shut."

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales follow the coffin of Diana(PA)

Prince Harry and his mother(Getty)

Meanwhile in London Anji Hunter, who was Prime Minister Tony Blair 's adviser, called her boss, explaining: "I went on the phone to Tony, he was up in Sedgefield, and he absolutely clocked it straightaway

"There was a phrase he used sometimes “My God this is enormous doings, it's really big, we've got to be absolutely, wise focused and sensible."

Diana's death was unprecedented and Buckingham Palace had just a week to organise the funeral.

A committee was set up including people from both Kensington, Buckingham and St James' Palace as well as representatives from Number 10, the Police and the Spencer family.

Ms Hunter revealed there was tension over aspects of the arrangements including who should walk behind the coffin with the young Princes initially not keen.

She said: "I can remember and it sends a tingle up my back thinking about it, we were talking and then from the speaker phone on the table came Prince Philip's voice and it was anguished, 'these are the boys here, we are talking about these boys, they have lost their mum'.

"It brought it all home to us."

Earl Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles watch as the coffin containing the body of Princess Diana is driven away from Westminster Abbey(Reuters)

Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry and Lord Althorp bow their heads as Diana's body passes by in a hearse(Mirrorpix)

The Princesses private secretary Patrick Jepson said the funeral organisers were unsure they would be able to fill Westminster Abbey with enough people.

He said: "There was no rule book to go to, no precedent, no tradition, nothing fitted the royal game plan.

"I remember saying if you get hold of a guest list for the Princess' Christmas drinks in 1995, invite everybody on that guest list and you won't have missed out anybody important."

As it was the streets were lined with 2million people to watch the cortège travel four miles through the capital.

The Princesses body was in a 50 stone lead lined coffin and her pallbearers had to practice with two concrete kerb stones inside Westminster Abbey.

Police remove the crumpled wreck of the Mercedez-Benz which was carrying Princess Diana(Reuters)

Philip Bartlett, who was one pall bearer, said: "We got told we were going to try and simulate the weight with a kerb stone

"We were wearing metal studs and the Abbey's marble floor was like an ice skating rink.

"We went up and down but you could feel with each step it slipping and you had to be careful."

After the funeral Diana's body was taken the Spencer family home at Althorp for a private burial but what many people watching didn't realise was all the motorcycle outriders knew Diana personally having met her during Royal protection duties.

10 FACTS ABOUT KENSINGTON PALACE

by Victoria Howard

One of the most popular attractions in London with 394,000 visitors last year, Kensington Palace has centuries of history to tell…

1 – Kensington Palace was built by William III and Mary II to help ease the King’s asthma outside of the capital. It was known as ‘Nottingham House’ originally, as the Jacobean house was owned by the Earl of Nottingham.

Kensington Palace was created by William III and Mary II

2 – Numerous treasures have been found within the palace walls: works by Henry VIII’s court painter, Hans Holbein the Younger, were found in a drawer at the palace. Queen Caroline, consort to George II, was thrilled with the discovery.

A book of drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci, thought to have belonged to Charles I, was also unearthed in 1770 during the reign of George III.

— DIANA’S DRESSES AT KENSINGTON PALACE — 

3 – Princess Margaret lived in Apartment 1A, which now belongs to The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Diana, Princess of Wales, occupied Apartment 8 with her sons, while The Duke and Duchess of Kent have Wren Cottage, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester Apartment 1, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Apartment 10. There are rumours Princess Eugenie may move in if she marries her long-term boyfriend. Have a look at the layout here.

4 – George II was fond of this as a residence. An evening of cards saw him and friends get a little rowdy: Countess Deloraine’s chair was pulled away as she sat down – which the King found hilarious. She did it back to the King, who -suffering from haemorrhoids – didn’t appreciate the joke from his humiliated friend.

5 – This is where Princess Alexandrina – the future Queen Victoria – grew up, first met Prince Albert, and was told she had become Queen after the death of her uncle, William IV at the age of 18.

6 – The King’s Apartments are deliberately quite bare. Courtiers would queue up to try to have an audience with the King, and so furnishing was kept minimal to allow space for crowds.

Barack and Michelle Obama talk with William, Kate and Harry in the Cambridge’s drawing room at Kensington Palace. They live in Apartment 1A. (WPA/I-images)

7 – Royals don’t just live in the Palace – there are a few cottages within the grounds which are inhabited by members of the Royal Family. Nottingham Cottage, north of the complex, was where Prince Harry lived as a bachelor and, before moving to Frogmore Cottage at Windsor with wife Meghan, and then to the USA.

8 – Kensington was first opened to the public in 1899, after an ageing Queen Victoria ordered the palace to be restored. Historic Royal Palaces now runs the parts of the Palace open to the public, focussing on Queen Victoria’s and Diana, Princess of Wales’ stories. You can buy tickets here.

9 – The walls of Kensington Palace have seen numerous births and deaths. Queen Mary II died of smallpox here in 1894, while her sister, Queen Anne, suffered numerous heartbreaking miscarriages and stillbirths, ending her days at Kensington. But Princess Victoria May of Teck, who became Queen Mary (consort of George V) was born at the palace, as was Queen Victoria.

This statue of Queen Victoria was made by her own daughter, Princess Louise (HRP)

10 – The statue of Queen Victoria which sits outside of the palace was created by her daughter, Princess Louise. It was unveiled in 1893, when the palace was in a state of disrepair. Louise won a public competition to craft a likeness of her mother, but her work was initially anonymous.