Princes Attend Funeral Of Princess Diana's Mother

[Kalista]

OBAN, Scotland -- Princes William and Harry joined 600 mourners in this rugged Scottish town Thursday for the funeral of Frances Shand Kydd, mother of Princess Diana.

William, 21, read a passage from the Bible during a Roman Catholic funeral Mass at St. Columba's Cathedral in Oban. Nineteen-year-old Harry, dressed in a black suit and with close-cropped hair, flew home from a post-high school trip to Africa for the service.

Shand Kydd, 68, died June 3 at her home on Scotland's remote Seil Island after a long illness. She had lived in seclusion for many years and converted to Roman Catholicism.

William's cousin Emily McCorquodale delivered the first reading, before the prince ascended the pulpit. He gripped the lectern and appeared to struggle to master his emotions when his voice faltered as he read from the Bible.

Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, paid tribute to his mother as "an open book -- a woman who was afraid of nothing and of nobody, somebody not interested in convention but in truth and fun.

"She believed in equality and decency and had no time for self pity."

Shand Kydd married Edward John Spencer in 1954 at Westminster Abbey. They had three daughters -- Diana was the youngest -- and one son.

The marriage foundered in 1967 when she fell in love with Peter Shand Kydd, who was married. The pair married in 1969 when the future princess was 8. Diana stayed with her father after the split and decades later told Andrew Morton, author of the 1992 book, "Diana, Her True Story" that her childhood was very unhappy and unstable.

Shand Kydd acknowledged she sometimes had a turbulent relationship with her famous daughter, who married heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles in 1981. The prince and princess divorced in 1996, and Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the next year.

Prince Charles did not attend Thursday's funeral service.

Earl Spencer said Diana's marriage "inevitably impacted" on his mother's "quiet life," but that the two had remained close.

"Mother became an invaluable source of advice and support for they had wed at a similarly young age," he said.

"Any tensions they may have had were typical tensions between a mother and a daughter," he added. (AP)

 

[Kalista]

She spent her final days watching other people’s families from the windows of her lonely home. But Frances Shand Kydd, the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales, died many hundreds of miles from her own surviving children.

The grandmother of Prince William and Prince Harry died aged 68 last week at her modest whitewashed bungalow on the remote Isle of Seil, off north west Scotland. She had been frail for some time, suffering from a deteriorating condition that was thought to be Parkinson’s disease.

From aristocratic beginnings Frances Shand Kydd emerged as one of the most elegant beauties of her day, married at 18 to Earl Spencer at a lavish society wedding. But at the end there was only the company of her priest, and the comfort of watching her neighbours come and go - a sad finale to a life that had survived great turmoil.

Yesterday on Seil the tight-knit community was getting on with everyday life after the passing of its most celebrated neighbour. Less than three miles from Shand Kydd’s home, which sits high on a hill overlooking Seil Sound, the talk of her local pub, the Tigh-an-Truish, was boats, house prices and holidays. Yet signs of her remained: a collection tin for the community hall fund, of which she was patron, stood on the shelf; and up beside her home, Callanish, cars came and went as her valuable personal effects were taken away for safe keeping.

Neighbours remembered a woman who, despite her close royal connections, had simply been one of their own. "We all have our reasons for living here," said one, spreading her arms wide to take in the vast expanse of barren, windswept land. "We are country people. We all have our own circles and lead our own lives."

Seil, a tiny island near Oban, separated from the mainland by a hump-backed stone bridge, does not like strangers asking questions about Frances Shand Kydd. Over the years it has tolerated visits from the media over the death of Princess Diana, Shand Kydd’s harassment from two stalkers and her car crash in Oban in 2002. When Shand Kydd had to go to London to give evidence at the theft trial of Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, thieves stole £100,000 of jewellery from her home.

But despite the fact that her presence on the island sometimes shattered its peace, locals remember her with respect. The former countess is referred to as Mrs, not by her first name. Even after her death, islanders are reluctant to give directions to her home. She is said to have been well liked and when her illness made it impossible for her to wander freely she was missed.

 

[Kalista]

One family at the bottom of the hill has a clear view up to Shand Kydd’s home. Its huge windows offer sweeping views of the fields, flowers and Atlantic waters that make Seil so tranquil. "She had a good view. She certainly knew everything that went on in our family," the neighbour said.

Shand Kydd could have chosen to live far closer to her surviving children: Earl Spencer, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes. They asked her to move south so they could look after her. But she refused, choosing instead to live in exile, filling her time with church duties and local good works, and spending her private time almost barricaded in isolation on her beloved island, hours from her nearest relatives.

A devout Roman Catholic, she spent much of her time when healthy raising money for charity and championing good causes. Last year she was made patron of the village hall fund, which she saw as the heart of the community. She was also patron of such wide-ranging groups as the Highlands and Islands Music Dance Festival, the Highland Division of the Search and Rescue Dog Association and Oban Air Training Corps. She comforted the bereaved families of fishermen and made 15 pilgrimages to Lourdes with groups of disabled people.

Mike Shaw, of Kilbrandon House, Balvicar, chairman of the local hall fund, remembered his neighbour fondly yesterday. "For a good many years it was not just Frances but Frances and Peter," he said, referring to her second husband Peter Shand Kydd, who moved with her to Seil nearly 30 years ago. "They were good friends and neighbours. Everyone had a happy time with them.

"For people like ourselves it’s obvious why we live here. We would see her very much out and about. She was an interested member of the community and with her help our fund for the village hall has done terribly well. We have raised £80,000 so far.

"We in the village were not really interested in her public side. When her grandchildren or Diana visited it was a private family affair. We were interested in her as a friend and neighbour. She had been frail for a long time before she died. The last time I saw her was several weeks ago," he said.

During the last weeks of her life Shand Kydd had to abandon her tasks as she grew increasingly ill. She stopped venturing out of her house. But to the end she refused to reveal the exact nature of her disease, other than to deny it was a stroke or anything life threatening.

But it was a progressive disease of the muscles and its onset was rapid. Eventually she could only move with the help of a walking frame, then a wheelchair. She struggled to walk and speak, suffering tremors and slurred speech, and apparently gave up smoking and drinking in an effort to stay fit.

Just two months ago she defiantly defended her decision to stay on the island: "I do not have a drop of English blood in me. I am half-Scottish and I hope that through Seil I have become a true Scot," she said. "Diana loved Seil. She really liked the people. All my children love it here and all my grandchildren have been here. I couldn’t leave it. Despite all that has happened to me recently it is still where my heart is and always will be."

Shand Kydd’s final days were a world away from her early years. Born the Hon Frances Burke Roche in 1936, her mother was a Scot from a well-connected Aberdeenshire family with a house on the Sandringham estate, who often mixed with the Royal Family. One of her best friends at school was Susan Wright, the future mother of Sarah Ferguson.

Shand Kydd was a striking debutante, and her coming-out ball in 1953 was a grand affair with her father Lord Fermoy kick starting proceedings by dancing with the Queen Mother. Aged 19, she married ‘Johnnie’ Spencer, who was 10 years her senior, in Westminster Abbey. It was the wedding of the year with the entire Royal Family as guests.

But the pressure was on the young bride to produce a son and heir to ensure the family seat in Northamptonshire would not pass to another branch of the family. After giving birth to three daughters, Sarah, Jane then Diana, a son John was born. But he died after just 10 hours of life. Shand Kydd became pregnant again but miscarried and was under such strain she kept it a secret for many years. Finally, in 1964 the current earl was born, but the marriage was in tatters. By 1967 she fell in love with Peter Shand Kydd, a wallpaper tycoon. The Spencers split in a notorious divorce in 1969.

Unusually at the time, the earl won custody of the children and she was vilified as the ‘bolter’ who abandoned her family. The Princess of Wales later blamed the divorce for some of her own troubles in later life, including her eating disorders. Shand Kydd’s second marriage fared no better. The couple set up home on Seil and she opened a gift shop in Oban, but then her second husband left her for a younger woman. Stung by the humiliation, Shand Kydd closed her shop and became a virtual recluse.

Her worst day began in the early hours of August 31, 1997, when she was awakened by a telephone call from a friend who had seen a television news flash that Princess Diana had been involved in a car crash in Paris. Mother and daughter were not on speaking terms at the time, with Diana furious at a Hello! magazine interview her mother had given, in which she criticised the princess’s choice of lovers and openly discussed her bulimia. Shand Kydd had sold her story to the glossy magazine to raise funds for her church, but Diana was so hurt she returned, unopened, letters her mother sent her.

Despite the rift, Diana had made her mother an executor of her will, expressing the wish that Charles would consult Shand Kydd over the upbringing and education of William and Harry.

Although they did visit from time to time, the island’s inaccessibility put a strain on the boys’ closeness to their maternal grandmother. When they did visit, they took the train to Argyll under police escort and their grandmother took them fishing or for picnics in the country.

But in her final years Shand Kydd coped with horrendous pressures. There was harassment from stalkers - one of whom claimed to be Diana’s father. Another man put a note through her door which said: "I am here. I am coming here."

In 1998 she was banned from driving for a year after being caught two-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit. In March 2000 her Audi was found in a ditch near Oban, but she denied being in the car. Then in November 2002 she almost died when her car skidded over a bridge and landed on its roof.

The theft while she was giving evidence at Burrell’s trial in 2002 robbed her of £100,000 worth of jewellery, including the pearl necklace she wore to Diana’s wedding and a diamond brooch that had reportedly belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots.

When she fell badly ill in April, Shand Kydd was taken to hospital and her children travelled to be by her side. She recovered enough to be allowed home last month with a full-time carer, but she knew her time was running out and bought a burial plot in Oban. But none of Shand Kydd’s family were with her at the end. When she passed away at 11am on Thursday, only her priest, Canon Donald MacKay, was present to administer the last rites.

She had admitted that the ‘ache’ of Diana’s death never left her, and many believed she would never get over the death of her daughter - especially as the princess was the second of Shand Kydd’s children to die before her.

Last night, as the sun set on peaceful Seil, her isolated home was in darkness, a world away from the ceremony, publicity and mass mourning that had surrounded her daughter’s death.

But far from the limelight, those whom she befriended in the community she loved and the families she helped through their own troubles will miss her.

The Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, Ian Murray, said: "She was a well kent face in the area and a reader at mass in the cathedral. She was always on hand to prepare teas and coffees. She once said that her father had taught herto treat everyone the same, whether they came from castle, cottage or caravan. That was a lesson she lived out very well."