Anne and Captain Phillips wed as 500 million people watch

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33383, 15 November 1973, Page 1

Anne and Captain Phillips wed as 500 million people watch

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 14. The world’s most public wedding—watched by a television audience of about 500 million —became a very private and personal affair, when, just before noon today, Captain Mark Phillips slipped a simple band of Welsh gold on the finger of Princess Anne. The congregation of 2000 in Westminster Abbey strained silently to hear the quietly spoken words, “with this ring, 1 thee wed.”

The Princess and the soldier bridegroom pledged their love with the binding intimacy of any family wedding, in any village church.

The ceremony paid no regard to rank or title. This man, Mark Anthony Peter, took this woman, Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, to be his lawful wedded wife. The Princess, who only yesterday described herself as “just an old fashioned girl,” promised to obey. The bride entered the Abbey’s west door—the door her mother walked through as a bride 26 years ago, and to her Coronation five years later. With echoes of “Behold a Rose is Blooming,” by Brahms, still warming the Abbey stone, the Princess began her last walk down a church aisle as a single woman. At the door, she had been handed her bouquet—ls white roses flown from the Netherlands, surrounded by 50 lilies of the valley from Ascot. Also in the bouquet were

tiny orchid hybrids from Singapore, sprigs of white heather for luck, and myrtle grown from the wedding bouquet carried by Queen Victoria and planted outside the Holy Trinity Church, at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. Her entrance was heralded by a fanfare composed by the Master of the Queen’s Musick (Sir Arthur Bliss), and played by scarlet-uniformed trumpeters of the regiment of Captain Phillips, the Queen’s Dragoon Guards. As the veiled bride, in a classic white dress, walked the first of 450 steps to the altar, the congregation joined in the hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” She walked, on her father’s arm, solemn and dignified, under the Abbey’s tiered chandeliers that reflected colour from closed-circuit television sets lining the aisles. Her only bridesmaid, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, aged nine, the daughter of Princess Margaret, and the page.

Prince Edward, aged nine, fell into step behind. The Princess walked past the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior; under the goldleafed organ loft, and into the choir; past the Prime Minister (Mr Heath), the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Wilson), Mr Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party, and Government Ministers; past her friends; and on to the altar steps where the bridegroom, in full regimental dress, waited with his best man and friend. Captain Eric Grounds. As Princess Anne moved to his side they exchanged a quick glance before mounting the steps into the sacrarium. There, both families were seated: 21 members of the Royal Family on the right, and 21 of the Phillips family on the left. There, with the eyes of the world only on their backs, began the prime affair of a family wedding. The arc lights and the cameras remained behind the couple—at the Royal Family’s request-r-as the Dean of Westminster (the Very Rev. Dr Eric Abbott) began the familiar solemnisation of marriage: “Dearly beloved

The vows The Archbishop of Canterbury (the Most Rev. Dr Ramsey) led the young couple through the vows used in any Christian wedding, the pomp and circumstance forgotten in the intimate promises that unite man and woman as husband and wife. They promised clearly to love one another “until death us do part.” The Queen watched intently as Prince Philip passed their only daughter’s hand into the right hand of Captain Phillips. Ring blessing Captain Grounds then took the ring from his own finger —he had no pocket in his dress uniform —and passed it to the Archbishop to be blessed. Captain Phillips took the ring and slid it on the third finger on his bride’s left hand. Princess Anne and Captain Phillips knelt together on red brocade prayer stools, as, after a short prayer, the Archbishop joined their hands and said: “Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

“For as much as Mark Anthony Peter and Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise have consented together in holy wedlock and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and there to have given and pledged their troth either to other and declared the same by giving and receiving of a ring and by joining of hands: I pronounce that they be man and wife together.” Then there were the prayers; a lesson read by the cousin of Captain Phillips, the Bishop of Maidstone (the Rt Rev. Geoffrey Tiarks); the hymn. “Immortal, Invisible,” and the final blessing. There was another fanfare, and the dramatically simple ceremony had ended. The bride and groom walked together to sign the registers. Minutes passed, and the congregation patiently waited until the trumpeters sounded their signal for the processional march up the aisle. Captain Phillips, the Princess on his arm, began the walk up the aisle. Princess Anne looked composed and happy. She had ridden to the Abbey through the thronged streets in the

Glass Coach, smiling and waving to the cheering crowds. Even as she walked up the blue-carpeted aisle of the Abbey, she was\till chatting to her father, Prince Philip.