You don’t have to travel far in Britain to find someone with a Princess Anne anecdote.

Here’s the plaque for the village hall she opened in 1973; there’s the photograph of a royal visit to a back-street charity office in 1994, in which she looks much the same as she does now.

Someone remembers seeing her roll up her sleeves to help get the lavatories working on a remote humanitarian visit overseas; a young rider recalls the praise fed back to him after the Princess spotted that he was having trouble on a difficult horse during Trooping the Colour and made a point of telling his superiors he dealt with it admirably.

Half of the population seems to have met her, or had a relative who did. Almost all are quite sure she thoroughly enjoyed their conversation, probably her favourite of that

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