Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961 at Sandringham in Norfolk, England. She died on 31 August 1997 in Paris, France. She was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the throne for 300 years.

Diana was born at Park House on the Sandringham estate, the third child and youngest daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, later the 8th Earl Spencer, and Frances Ruth Burke Roche, daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy. Her childhood playmates included the queen's younger sons.

Her parents married in 1954 at Westminster Abbey, with the Queen as chief guest at a ceremony counted among the social events of the year. The marriage ended in divorce when Diana was a child, and she remained with her father along with her brother and two sisters.

In 1975 the family moved to the Spencer seat at Althorp, a stately house dating from 1508 in the English Midlands.

Riddlesworth Hall near Thetford in Norfolk and West Heath School near Sevenoaks in Kent provided her schooling. At West Heath she excelled at sport, particularly swimming, but she failed all her O levels. After a finishing school at Chateau d'Oex in Switzerland she returned to England and became a kindergarten assistant at the Young England school in Pimlico.

As her friendship with the Prince of Wales grew more serious during 1980 the press and television besieged her, and the engagement was announced on 24 February 1981. Her beauty and shy demeanour earned her the nickname Shy Di.

They were married at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981 in a ceremony that drew a global television and radio audience estimated at around 1,000 million people. The Prince was 13 years older than Diana, and the couple appeared to have little in common.

Diana's public role extended to her children, Prince William, born on 21 June 1982, and Prince Henry, known as Harry, born on 15 September 1984, the second of two sons. Rather than being taught by private tutors, the boys attended school alongside other children.

Royal walkabouts were not a new practice, but Diana brought to them a spontaneity that charmed almost everyone she met. Through this she pioneered a refreshingly modern image for the royal family, and her popularity earned her the title of the people's princess.

Diana's charitable commitments extended well beyond a single cause. She helped raise awareness about AIDS, and simple gestures such as shaking hands with AIDS patients proved to the public that social contact with sufferers was risk-free. She was one of the first high profile figures in the world to be photographed shaking hands with an AIDS sufferer, during a visit to America. The Princess made regular visits to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London, of which she was president.

When divorce proceedings led her to sever official links with her charities, she wrote personally to all the charities she dropped, explaining that she could not provide the level of commitment they deserved.

On a visit to Indonesia in 1989 she was praised for publicly shaking hands with lepers, dispelling widely held myths about the disease. English National Ballet said she worked tirelessly with the company after she became patron in 1989 and was one of its staunchest allies.

Diana, Princess of Wales became a leading campaigner against the use of landmines, and in 1997 the issue shot to international prominence when she walked through a minefield during a visit to HALO in Angola. She had already been involved with the International Committee of the Red Cross on the issue before the British government declared its ban. Robin Cook briefed her on the Angola visit and said she showed a depth of understanding and huge bravery.

In June 1997 she spoke at a landmines conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London and then visited Washington to promote the American Red Cross landmines campaign. She used her popularity to focus the attention of the world's news media on the issue. Lord Steel told the BBC that many had pursued the cause for years before Diana took it up and made it headline news. She faced criticism for being too political.

Delegates at an international conference in Oslo trying to agree a worldwide ban on land mines paid tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with its coordinator Jody Williams for its efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty. The Mine Ban Convention counted 162 parties as at 17 October 2026.

Shortly after her Angola visit the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty was signed by 122 countries, calling for the world to unite to get rid of landmines. The convention was concluded at Oslo on 18 September 1997, opened for signature at Ottawa on 3 December 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1999 under article 17.

The end of the marriage was not a single event but a process. In December 1992 it was announced that the Prince and Princess of Wales had agreed to separate. On 20 November 1995 she gave an unprecedented and remarkably open interview with the BBC's Panorama programme.

After prolonged negotiations their divorce became final on 28 August 1996 and left Diana with a substantial financial settlement but without the title Her Royal Highness. The couple continued to share equal responsibility for the upbringing of their children. She gave up all but a small nucleus of her charity work as she sought a new role. Also in June she auctioned off 79 dresses and ballgowns that had appeared on front covers of magazines around the world.

After the divorce Diana maintained her high public profile and continued many of the charitable activities she had undertaken, supporting the arts, children's issues and AIDS patients.

The Princess died on Sunday 31 August 1997 after the vehicle in which she was travelling was involved in a high-speed accident in the Place de l'Alma underpass in central Paris shortly before midnight on Saturday 30 August. Early on Sunday morning the 36-year-old Princess and Mr Fayed were in a Mercedes car which went out of control at high speed as it entered an underground tunnel in the French capital. The car crashed in a tunnel at the Pont de l'Alma bridge along the Seine, less than a half-mile from the Eiffel Tower.

The Princess was killed along with her close friend Dodi Fayed, the 41-year-old son of Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, and the car's driver; their black Mercedes was pursued by paparazzi on motorcycles, photographers who constantly tailed Diana to snatch pictures of her.

Diana's funeral was held at Westminster Abbey in London on 6 September 1997, after her body had lain in the chapel at St James's Palace. The cortege left from Kensington Palace, Diana's home, and the coffin was carried on a gun carriage by riders of the King's Troop and escorted by mounted police. Five hundred representatives of charities linked with the Princess followed her coffin on its way to the Abbey. The service lasted about 50 minutes and was relayed to a large screen near the Abbey and by loudspeaker to the crowds, and a one-minute silence was observed afterwards.

The image of Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged fifteen and twelve, walking with their father behind Diana's casket became iconic. At the funeral Elton John performed a version of Candle in the Wind with lyrics revised by Bernie Taupin to reflect on Diana's life and death.

Following the funeral service the coffin was taken by road to Althorp for a private interment, and she was buried on an island in the centre of an ornamental lake.

Her death in a car crash in 1997 at the age of 36 shocked the world and sparked a remarkable outpouring of public grief, and the royal family broke with tradition in arranging an internationally televised royal funeral after being caught off guard by that mourning. The recording of Elton John's Candle in the Wind became the most successful pop single in history to date, selling more than 30 million copies.

The Diana Award describes itself as the only charity set up in memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales and her belief that young people have the power to change the world. Its award and development programme recognises outstanding young people selflessly creating and sustaining positive social change in memory of Diana.

The Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park contains 545 pieces of Cornish granite, each shaped by computer-controlled machinery and pieced together by hand.

Since 2011 Prince Harry has continued in his mother's footsteps in support of The HALO Trust.

• 1 July 1961
  Birth
  Diana is born.
• 1975
  Move to Althorp
  The family moves to the Spencer seat at Althorp, a stately house dating from 1508 in the English Midlands ^{2Diana, Princess of Wales · The Royal Household ↗}.
• 24 February 1981
  Engagement
  The engagement is announced.
• 29 July 1981
  Marriage
  The wedding takes place.
• 21 June 1982
  Prince William born
  Prince William arrives as the first of the couple's two sons ^{1Diana, princess of Wales · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗}.
• 15 September 1984
  Prince Harry born
  Prince Henry, known as Harry, follows as the second son ^{1Diana, princess of Wales · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗}.
• 1989
  English National Ballet patronage
  She becomes patron of the English National Ballet ^{5Charities devastated by Diana's death · BBC News ↗}.
• December 1992
  Separation announced
  The separation is made public.
• 20 November 1995
  Panorama interview
  The interview is broadcast.
• June 1997
  Landmines conference and dress auction
  She attends a landmines conference and a charity dress auction.
• 31 August 1997
  Death
  Diana dies.
• 6 September 1997
  Funeral
  The funeral is held.