The Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex will unveil a statue of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, to mark her 60th birthday.
The event is the first appearance of the brothers together since their grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh’s, funeral in April.
William and Harry commissioned the statue in 2017, and it will stand in the redesigned sunken garden at Kensington Palace. They hope it will help visitors “reflect on her life and her legacy”.
Harry, who now lives in the US with his wife and two children, arrived in the UK last week. This allowed him time to complete his specified period of quarantine before today’s event. He also paid a surprise visit to a ceremony for seriously ill children in the UK, on Wednesday.
The ceremony, scaled back due to Covid restrictions, is a small and personal moment for the family. The two princes are joined at the unveiling by members of Diana’s close family, as well as the committee overseeing the statue’s creation and redesign of the garden it is in. Among the guests is the sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, who has a long history of creating images of the Royal Family.
The princess’ favourite location
This place was chosen for the home of the statue because, when she lived at Kensington Palace, the Sunken Garden was “one of the princess’s favourite locations”.
The garden sits within Hyde Park, and the public can visit for free from tomorrow, in line with opening hours at the palace. Its redesign took 1,000 hours to complete, and involved planting over 4,000 flowers.
Ian Rank-Broadley’s royal work includes an effigy of the Queen which appeared on all UK and Commonwealth coins since 1998. Another of his likenesses of the monarch is on a plaque at the Supreme Court in Parliament Square. He also created a likeness of Prince Philip to commemorate the late duke on a limited edition £5 coin unveiled on Armed Forces Day.
Other work includes two sculptures at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. They depict a group carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher, and another group tending to an injured comrade. His sculpture of a machine gunner stands on the Royal Anglian Regimental Memorial at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire.
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