Scotland gets princess after 21/2-year battle

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 6

Scotland gets princess after 2 1 /2-year battle

NZPA-AAP London After a year battle with Edinburgh public servants and Buckingham Palace, Scotland a new princess. She is not. of direct Royal descent, but Princess Dulcima Rosetta Manwaring-Spencer, from the Isle of Skye, can bear her name with pride — and now within the law. The saga began when Mr and Mrs Hugh Manwaring-Spencer had their fifth child in 1986 and entered the words Princess Dulcima Rosetta on the birth certificate. Five months after the certificate arrived with the Registrar General in Edinburgh, an official letter arrived saying “Princess” could not be used.

Mr and Mrs Manwar-ing-Spencer had fallen foul of an Order in Council, made in 1910, which ruled names like “Princess” were a Crown perogative and required the Sovereign’s permission before use.

They then wrote to the Queen asking her permission and a reply from Her Majesty said she took “no offence.” Three weeks later, however, another letter from the Queen’s secretary withdrew the Royal permission, saying the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act of 1965 ruled out the name’s use.

The parents then turned again to the Registrar General’s office which carried out an inquiry and

concluded there was no specific authority banning the use of such names.

The Scottish Home Office Minister, Mr Michael Forsyth, then wrote to the ManwaringSpencers telling them of the decision.

“It has just now been decided that there is really no reason at all why a persn should not be entitled to call his daughter Princess,” the letter said.

A Scottish Home Office spokesman told the "Daily Telegraph” newspaper what was involved was really a change in practice and attitude from the Registrar General rather than a change in the rules.