Princess Anne Attends Memorial for Australian Bushfire Dead

Princess Anne today joined the mourners at a memorial service in Melbourne to honour the 209 people who died during the bushfires earlier this month. The Princess Royal was representing her mother Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, in commemorating the victims of the worst fires for many decades, which left tens of thousands of people homeless. The Princess read a message from the Queen during the service.

The Princess, who will also be visiting some of the devastated areas, said during the ceremony, “Individuals and towns have responded with resilience, ingenuity, courage and selflessness to situations that were changing at terrifying speed. People from around Australia and across the world watched in horror but with admiration at their response.”

After the ceremony, the Princess visited the Department of Sustainability and Environment to see the emergency control centre.

The Queen and the Prince of Wales have offered their condolences to the Australian people, and Her Majesty has made a donation to the Australian Red Cross’s Victorian Bushfire Fund (see this blog entry for more details). The Duke of Edinburgh has opened the condolence book at the Australian High Commission in London.

For a discussion of Princess Anne’s visit to Australia to take part in this ceremony, see this thread.

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Australia, Donations, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Memorial, Natural Disaster, The Princess Royal.

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