Page 52 - BBC History - September 2017

The death of Diana

here are moments in history relationship with the dead woman. “She was,” In 1997, Britain was
when you can feel a nation he told the cameras that morning, “the
changing course, and the people’s princess.” just emerging from
summer of 1997 felt like one Later, Blair himself admitted that it
of them. On the first day of sounded like “something from another age. a period in which
May, the British electorate And corny. And over the top.” But it caught
Thad unceremoniously the public imagination for a reason. For in the crying in public
slammed the door on 18 years of Conservative next few days, the popular reaction to Diana’s
was regarded as a
government, handing Tony Blair’s Labour death escalated to a point when few people
party the biggest landslide in postwar history. could remember a precedent.
When, in the small hours of the morning, Outside her London home, Kensington sign of weakness
Blair addressed Labour’s election-night party Palace, well-wishers left more than a million
at the Royal Festival Hall, he began with the bouquets. At the family home, Althorp, so
words: “A new dawn has broken, has it not?” many people tried to bring flowers that the villagers solemnly listening to Charles
At lunchtime the following day, as his car police begged them to stay away because the Spencer’s eulogy, delivered in a language
pulled into Downing Street for the first time, traffic chaos was endangering public safety. almost none of them understood, was one
London was bathed in brilliant sunshine. When Diana’s funeral was held at Westminster of the most extraordinary things I have
Britain, Blair had once said, must be a “young Abbey on 6 September, an estimated three ever seen.
country” again. And as the new prime million people poured into the streets of Twenty years on, Diana’s death remains an
minister shook hands with the lines of Labour London, while a further 2.5 billion people obvious landmark in our recent history. Yet
activists waving their Union Jacks, there was a watched the worldwide television coverage. the passions that surrounded it – the fury at
palpable sense that something had changed. the popular press, which was thought to have
Three months later, on Sunday 31 August, A global spectacle hounded her to her grave; the outcry at the
Blair was in his constituency home in the I was in the Balkans that summer, backpack- royal family, who were criticised for their
north-east of England when he heard the ing after graduating from university. Diana’s reluctance to mourn more publicly; even the
terrible news that Diana, Princess of Wales death made the front page of every Bulgarian enthusiasm for Tony Blair, who saw his public
had been killed in a car crash in Paris. Almost newspaper for days. On the day of her funeral, satisfaction rating rise to a record high – have
immediately his thoughts turned to what he I and my friends were in a little Black Sea now faded to the point when many feel almost
would say, scribbling some thoughts on the fishing village. At the appointed hour, a man embarrassed to recall them.
back of an envelope. Among them was a came out into the square carrying a battered In the aftermath of the wedding of Prince REUTERS/GETTY
phrase suggested by his press chief, Alastair old television, and the locals gathered around William, the diamond jubilee and the birth of
Campbell, that came to capture the public’s to watch the pictures. The spectacle of the a new heir, the monarchy has never been more

In pictures: Britain mourns the ‘people’s
princess’ in 1997

LEFT: Princess Diana during a visit to an Angolan minefield, 15 January FROM L TO R: Charles Spencer and Princes
RIGHT: A visibly shaken Tony Blair reacts to the news of Diana’s death, 31 August William, Harry and Charles at Diana’s funeral

52 BBC History Magazine