Princess Anne in tribute to Lockerbie disaster victims

The Princess Royal kept the royal show on the road yesterday as she pressed on with official duties, paying tribute to the victims of the Lockerbie air disaster.

Princess Anne, who along with the Queen has a full roster of duties this week, laid a wreath at a memorial garden for those who died in the UK’s deadliest terrorist attack in 1988.

With both the Princess of Wales and the King out of action for the foreseeable future as they undergo cancer treatment, and Prince William taking time off to support his family during the school Easter holidays, the roster of working royals is severely depleted.

But Anne and her younger brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, carried out five public engagements between them in Scotland.

The Princess looked solemn as she strolled through Lockerbie’s Garden of Remembrance, at Dryfesdale cemetery, shielding from the rain under an umbrella.

She paused, head bowed, before the memorial dedicated to the 270 victims who died in the disaster, on Dec 21, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown apart at 31,000ft by a bomb hidden in a radio cassette player.

The plane exploded over the town in Dumfries and Galloway on its return from London to New York. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, along with 11 Lockerbie residents.

Fiona Armstrong, Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries, welcomed the Princess to the garden in a short speech in which she described how she had been in the “small but vibrant market town” that night.

‘So much grief’

As a newsreader and reporter, she covered the bombing while working as a journalist.

“I saw first-hand how this town rallied, how it coped and has continued to cope over the decades,” she said.

“You could never be more proud of a community. A disaster like this can never be forgotten, so much grief, such senseless losses.”

As she invited the Princess to lay a wreath, she added: “Your brother, now the King, came here following the disaster. Your mother, the late Queen, your father, the Duke of Edinburgh, also came here some years after to pay their respects.

“And now we are honoured to have you here today as the Princess Royal.”

The Princess was shown around the visitor centre and spoke to those gathered before signing the guest book and unveiling a small plaque.

In 2001, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, was found guilty of 270 charges of murder. He died in 2012.

The man suspected of building the bomb, Libyan Abu Agila Masud, 72, is due to go on trial in the United States on May 12, 2025, on three charges, which he denies.

Earlier, the Princess visited MacRebur, an asphalt contractor, where she was told about the company’s manufacturing and testing processes.

She was also due to open new facilities at Browns Food Group in Kelloholm, before attending a reception in Glasgow as royal patron of the charity, Friends of TS Queen Mary, which owns and is restoring the British ship.

Meanwhile, the Duke was at Westhill Men’s Shed in Aberdeenshire, a project that encourages isolated men to come together to build and make things for their local communities.

The shed was the first of more than 100 to be opened in Scotland, 11 years ago.

Prince Edward was shown around the workshops and met electricians and engineers before sitting down to chat to members. “It was fairly low key,” one said afterwards. “Aberdeenshire does tend to be a bit laid back. The average age of men here is about 70 – no one has anything to prove.”

The Princess has three engagements in Scotland on Tuesday and two in Durham on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Queen will host a reception at Clarence House with authors and neuroscientists to celebrate the results of the Queen’s Reading Room study into the link between reading fiction and well-being on Tuesday evening. 

Then on Wednesday, she will visit Shrewsbury in Shropshire, where she will visit a farmers’ market and the restored Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the world’s first iron-framed building, which is used as a hub for volunteer groups.

On Thursday, she will become the first consort to distribute Maundy money on behalf of a monarch when she attends the annual service as the King’s representative.

A royal source said she was “proud” to shoulder a greater burden of official duties in the absence of the King and the Princess of Wales.