Meanwhile (for those who read my post on the D-Day attendance debate), England's Queen Elizabeth II is dipping into her personal coffers to come up with funds to cover the cost of her dashing grandson's first official overseas visit representing the royal family in New York this week.
Third in line to the throne, bonnie Prince Harry is set to stop by the World Trade Center site to formally name the British Garden in downtown's Hanover Square, honoring 67 British victims of the September 11 terror attack.
Youngest son of the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Harry has a bit of a reputation on the other side of the pond for his party-hearty nature, though his British army deployment to Afghanistan has made amends for much of his well publicized, otherwise normally youthful antics and will no doubt have prepared him to a certain degree for the nature of this particular visit.
For Harry will meet with family members of four people who died in the World Trade Center attacks, along with New York Gov. David Paterson and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials, before touring the Manhattan Veterans Affairs medical Center's prosthetics department and post-traumatic stress disorder clinic.
Twenty-one-year-old British soldier, Joe Townsend is accompanying Prince Harry on this visit. Townsend stepped on a Taliban anti-tank mine last year, losing both legs in the explosion.
Harry plays the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic on Governors Island in New York Harbor, on Saturday, facing off off against Argentinian polo player Nacho Figueras. The high-profile match is a benefit for American Friends of Sentebale, a U.S.-based charity supporting impoverished children in Lesotho, Africa. A documentary film called "The Forgotten Kingdom" was produced by Harry in that same region of Africa.
Joined by Sentebale's co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, the Prince is also scheduled to visit a community organization called the Harlem Children's Zone.
Widely thought of as sharing Diana's sense of spirit and fun, it will be interesting to see how much of her extraordinary compassion emerges in Harry's trip to New York.
What does "bonnie" Prince mean as you referred to Prince Harry? There is a musician name Bonnie Prince Billy but I just thought he made that up!
Posted by: Jennifer Galatioto | Saturday, May 30, 2025 at 11:10 AM
I borrowed it from Charles Edward Stuart (1720 – 1788, the exiled Jacobite claimant to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland. Still very commonly known in England and Scotland as Bonnie Prince Charlie! He was also known as the great pretender, though I hope that Harry, on the other hand, makes his granny proud by behaving like a proper English Gent in New York this weekend !
Posted by: Frances | Saturday, May 30, 2025 at 05:32 PM