Memorial tributes to be created to honour Princess Diana’s 60th birthday

A long-awaited statue to honour Princess Diana will be installed this year on what would have been the late royal’s 60th birthday — July 1, 2021.

Her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, said the statue will stand in the garden of their mother’s former home, Kensington Palace, and help people “reflect on her life and legacy.”

The statue, first commissioned in 2017, was “to mark the twentieth anniversary of her death and recognise her positive impact in the UK and around the world,” the palace said.

“The statue will be installed in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace on 1st July 2021, marking The Princess’s 60th birthday. The Princes hope that the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on their mother’s life and her legacy.”

The brothers will reunite for the memorial tribute despite reported tensions still at bay following Prince Harry’s bombshell Oprah interview.

Ian Rank-Broadley, the sculptor behind the image of their grandmother Queen Elizabeth that has been used to decorate all British coins since 1998, will create the tribute.

Blue Plaque

And just this week, it was announced a blue plaque will also be unveiled later this year to celebrate the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

It is believed it will be placed outside her Earl’s Court flat in London, where she lived before marrying Prince Charles.

It’s one of six new plaques celebrating extraordinary women planned for London this year, to help to address the gender imbalance, according to the BBC.

Anna Eavis, English Heritage’s curatorial director, explained: “We still have a long way to go to address the gender imbalance that has ensued since the first blue plaque went up over 150 years ago.”

Only 14 per cent of the blue plaques honour women – Princess Diana was nominated by the London Assembly, joining other recipients such as peace campaigner and crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, social reformer Caroline Norton, and designer Jean Muir.