Anne, Princess Royal

Biography

Anne was born at Clarence House in 1950, the second child and only daughter of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. She was taught by a governess at Buckingham Palace and then at Benenden School, and began public engagements in 1969.

A leading event rider, she won the individual European Eventing Championship in 1971, took two silver medals at the 1975 championship, and in 1976 became the first member of the British royal family to compete at the Olympic Games. She was president of the international equestrian federation from 1986 to 1994 and has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1988.

In November 1973 she married Captain Mark Phillips. In March 1974 she escaped an armed attempt to kidnap her in Pall Mall, in which her bodyguard, her chauffeur, a journalist and a police constable were shot. She and Phillips divorced in 1992, and she married Timothy Laurence that December. She has held the title Princess Royal since 1987.

Often described as the hardest-working member of the royal family, she has worked with Save the Children for more than fifty years, as its president from 1970 to 2017, and has been chancellor of the University of London since 1981 and of the University of Edinburgh since 2011, among several hundred patronages.