When you think about members of the Royal family, we bet that the first ones to come into your head are Kate and Wills or Meghan and Harry.

Anne, Princess Royal

Anne, Princess Royal

We’re not saying people forget about Princess Anne, but she’s one of the busiest royals that probably doesn’t get enough credit when up against her more popular relatives.

Leading the way with engagements

Now having participated in over 20,000 engagements, the Princess Royal has certainly made her mark with her role. If you take a look on the future engagements page on the Royal website, you will notice how she makes often several trips around the country a day.

In 2017, she was only a handful of engagements behind Prince Charles, four in fact, attending an honourable total of 541.

Royal Patron

Not only is she well on her game with the engagements, but she is also a patron of over 200 organisations, working extensively with Save the Children, St John Ambulance and WISE.

The Canadian Secretary to the Queen, Kevin S. MacLeod, said of Anne in 2014: “Her credo is ‘Keep me busy. I’m here to work. I’m here to do good things. I’m here to meet as many people as possible’”. She has certainly lived up to that, proving her determination to represent the Royals as the hard-working champions they are.

Equestrian successes

A gold medalist and twice silver medallist at the European Eventing Championships for her equestrian talents, and was the first member of the British Royal family to compete in the Olympics.

She was even voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971, and became the first member of the Royal family to appear on A Question of Sport as a contestant.

Fun-loving nature

Having siblings is a blessing, but we all know they can be a nuisance too.

We found this hilarious footage of Prince Charles sneaking up on Princess Anne, which confirms that even the Royals have brother-sister jibes.

During an interview with Michael Parkinson, she was asked if she could speak Australian - and her response was great.

Bravery

Known for being rather tough-natured with ability to brush off any inconveniences, Princess Anne is able to take a jovial approach to situations the average person may not.

In March of 1974, the then 24-year-old Princess Anne found herself the target of a horrifying attempted kidnap situation.

When now-incarcerated Ian Ball jumped out of an Escort and began firing in an attempt to kidnap her and hold her ransom, he shot 3 people before coming face to face with her. Inspector James Beaton, Anne’s personal police officer, Alex Callender, her chauffeur and Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist, were all shot in the terrifying scene. Thankfully, none of their injuries were fatal and they all recovered, later receiving honours from the Queen for steppin in.

Ball did at one point get close enough the Princess, telling her his plans to hold her for a monetary ransom, which he claimed he intended to give to the NHS. When he directed her to get out the car, she responded by saying: “Not bloody likely!”.

A passerby, who was a former boxer, also intervened, punching Ball in the back of the head and leading Anne away from the scene.


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk


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