Prince William joins his aunts Princess Anne and the Duchess of Edinburgh on secret trip to Wales to honour a close friend of the royal family
Aged 12, Shân was sent to a boarding school in Sussex. ‘[My mother] sent me to the furthest-away boarding school she could find in Sussex so that I couldn’t run away. That was awful. I was so homesick,’ she recalled. ‘I can remember literally standing in Abergavenny station waiting to go back to school with the tears streaming down my face.’
Accompanying Queen Elizabeth II on a visit to Glanusk Estate for the ‘Diamonds in the Park’ in April 2012
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In 1964, aged 21, Shân married Captain William Legge-Bourke. They welcomed three children: Tiggy, in 1965; Zara (now Zara Gordon Lennox) in 1966; and son Harry Legge-Bourke in 1972. Harry served as a page of honour to Queen Elizabeth II and later became an officer in the Welsh Guards and aide-de-camp to Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank.
Shân was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 1988 and made Lord Lieutenant of Powys in 1998. She was promoted to Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) in the 2015 New Years Honours list. Her life of charity and public service reflected her commitment to her community. She was formerly chair of the Brecon and Radnor Country and Land Association, President of Save the Children in Wales, President of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society and the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs.
