“She doesn’t get rained off,” declared a member of the Princess Royal’s team last week, as the heavens opened over Singapore’s national orchid garden and umbrellas were scrambled to protect the hairdo that hasn’t moved for decades.
Anne, who is known to use the phrase “there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing”, was never going to be blown off course by tropical weather on diplomatic manoeuvres. She had packed accordingly. No-frills beige trouser suits were deployed on both days of her visit to the city-state.
As the royal family continued to be buffeted by the scandal surrounding the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Anne was busying herself overseas as the ultimate antidote to the former prince known as “Airmiles Andy”.
During four days of military and remembrance-related engagements in Australia, followed by two days in Singapore marking 60 years of diplomatic relations with the UK following independence from Malaysia, the hardest-working member of the royal family flew the flag for the UK with her trademark low-key efficiency.
The Princess Royal ended her Australian tour with a bang, firing the starting gun on a relay race at Gallipoli Barracks
PATRICK HAMILTON
In one speech in Singapore, highlighting its “enduring diplomatic” ties with the UK, Anne — who sounds so like her late mother when she speaks that if you close your eyes, it could be Queen Elizabeth II — reminded guests this was her sixth visit.
The Princess Royal visited Rolls-Royce, displaying a sound grasp of the company’s engineering productivity
JORDAN PETTITT/PA
Her first was in 1972 when she accompanied Elizabeth and Prince Philip on a state visit. It was a reassuring reference harking back to the steadier days of the Elizabethan era, when family scandals were not rocking the institution.
Anne accompanying Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in Singapore in 1972
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Heavy rain and thunder followed Anne, 75, almost everywhere in Singapore but never appeared to dampen her spirits. She arrived from Brisbane at about midnight on Tuesday and had her first engagement on Wednesday morning.
If she was feeling any jet lag, it didn’t show as she was piped on board the British patrol ship HMS Spey, docked at Tuas Port. “She loves a man in uniform. It always cheers her up,” said an aide.
While the King and the Ministry of Defence were still in the process last week of stripping Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his last remaining title of vice-admiral, Anne, who holds several honorary naval titles, had tea and a catch-up with some of the ship’s 60 servicemen and women.
Showing no signs of flagging for her third engagement at the orchid garden, Anne mustered enthusiasm as she was presented with a purple orchid named in her honour and shown displays of “orchid diplomacy” with plants named after heads of state and dignitaries who have visited Singapore.
In a diplomatic nod of her own, the princess had changed from her trouser suit into a floral-patterned skirt, almost certainly worn on many prior engagements — Anne is known for “upcycling” her outfits, sometimes decades apart. One safari-style trouser suit worn on the trip made its debut in 1973.
If she had views on the questionable “orchid diplomacy” of a plant named after the King and Queen positioned alongside another named after Diana, Princess of Wales, she kept them to herself.
After an audience with Singapore’s president, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Anne was on to her fifth event of the day: the bread-and-butter royal fare of a soggy garden party at the British High Commissioner’s residence, Eden Hall, celebrating the King’s 77th birthday last week.
The princess in Brisbane during her four-day visit to Australia. She visited the Gallipoli Barracks on Remembrance Day
PATRICK HAMILTON-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Following handshakes and pleasantries with the great and the good of Singaporean business, politics and culture, Anne, accompanied by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, 70, and a small entourage of Colonel John Boyd, her private secretary, and her equerry, Captain Fergus Lupton, took cover from the heavy rain under a marquee to watch drenched bagpipers perform a medley.
Nikesh Mehta, the British high commissioner in Singapore who accompanied Anne on most of her engagements, reflected on the “stability in times of volatility” that a royal visit brings. If the garden party invitation had not said “in the presence of Her Royal Highness”, many of the guests would not have come, he conceded. He said: “In this volatile and unpredictable era, how the UK is seen by the rest of the world matters — and royal visits are an important part of maintaining the UK’s role on the world stage.”
On her final day, Anne was back at Eden Hall unveiling a plaque naming a building in her honour, before holding an audience with the prime minister, Lawrence Wong, at the official Istana residence. After a quick change into another beige trouser suit, it was off to the Airbus training centre, where her husband, the most understated of royal spouses, apologised for arriving 15 minutes early.
Strapping herself into the pilot’s seat of an A350 cockpit simulator, there was a flash of Anne’s infamous unvarnished honesty, as she told her hosts: “My last simulator [flight] was the A400. I didn’t like it.”
At the nearby Rolls-Royce headquarters, where she was shown some engines fitted to Airbus and Boeing planes, Anne showed a mastery of her brief, reeling off facts, figures and questions about the company’s engineering prowess and productivity. Unlike her sister-in-law, Queen Camilla, who aides say barely skim-reads her briefs, preferring to “find people how they are”, Anne is a stickler for preparation.
Courtiers describe the mild panic in her private office at St James’s Palace every Friday as “the bag” — a postbag of briefing notes, suggested engagements and biographies of everyone she is due to meet,
including journalists — is compiled for dispatch to Gatcombe Park, her Gloucestershire home.
In the end, Anne was only rained off for one of her commitments by the storms swirling around her brother. A scheduled interview with The Sunday Times to discuss the trip was cancelled. The official line? “A busy programme.” The reality? Nervousness around the Andrew saga, although those close to the princess say she is more than capable of handling herself with the media.
Before boarding a 13-hour commercial flight back to London on Thursday night, Anne squeezed in a dinner with prominent Singaporean trade and investment figures, who contribute towards the £19 billion inward investment to the UK each year.
For a decade, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor travelled the world at taxpayers’ expense in his role as the UK’s special trade envoy, before relinquishing the position in 2011 over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. The princess, who has also visited Ukraine, Turkey and South Africa this year, has been a far safer pair of hands on the international circuit.
At Brisbane’s Gallipoli Barracks, Anne met soldiers from the Australian Defence Force
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Reflecting on the trip, a source close to the princess said: “Her Royal Highness’s visit to Singapore offered a wonderful opportunity to deepen the longstanding friendship between our two nations. The princess was deeply touched by the gracious hospitality extended throughout her stay. From touching down through to meeting the president, the welcome HRH received is testament to the strong ties of friendship and mutual respect between Singapore and the United Kingdom. As we look to the future, the princess is reassured this long relationship will continue to flourish.”
At Rolls-Royce, Anne was invited to sign the visitors’ book. Unlike the King, whose run-ins with faulty fountain pens are well documented, Anne avoids inky hazards by carrying a gold pen in her handbag. Seated in front of a giant engine, the Princess Royal signed, sealed and delivered another successful
diplomatic charm offensive.
Some in royal circles call her “the best queen we’ll never have”. With plans to keep working until she is 90, Anne is the engine room of the monarchy, helping to propel the royal family through a period of turbulence.
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