\n
The Princess Royal chatted with veterans and their families during a Christmas Tea Party she hosted in their honour.<\/p>\n
Anne smiled and laughed as she spoke with the ex-servicemen and women who attended the event at St James\u2019s Palace on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The princess hosted the tea party for The Not Forgotten Association, which supports veterans and service-people who are suffering from injury and illness.<\/p>\n
Among the attendees was Ruth Barnwell, 101, who joined the Women\u2019s Royal Naval Service aged 17 when her brother\u2019s friend was killed on HMS Hood, which was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck during the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24 1941.<\/p>\n
Mrs Barnwell said she has met the princess four times this year, commenting that she always \u201cstops and chats\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\nThe Princess Royal, Patron of the Not Forgotten Association, meeting veteran Ruth Barnwell (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
She added: \u201cI think if anybody doesn\u2019t know what to do, join the forces, that\u2019s the best thing they can do. They can learn so much, I mean it\u2019s all trades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorothea Barron, 101, served with the Wrens between 1943 and 1945.<\/p>\n
The ex-servicewoman said she told Anne that she thinks she is \u201cthe absolute brick of the Royal family\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s practical, she\u2019s down to earth and she\u2019s a damned hard worker,\u201d Mrs Barron added.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her service, Mrs Barron said young people these days \u201ccan\u2019t imagine what we went through\u201d during the war.<\/p>\n\n\nA magician entertains guests at the Not Forgotten Association tea party for association members at St James\u2019s Palace, London (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Mrs Barron, who teaches yoga in a village hall near her home in Hertfordshire once a week, said she thinks that the secret to living a long life is simply luck and genetics.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cAnd making the most of every day, and don\u2019t be greedy, you can\u2019t take anything with you so why chase after wealth, it\u2019s a senseless waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strictly Come Dancing\u2019s Kristina Rihanoff and Pasha Kovalev also attended the event.<\/p>\n
Rihanoff, 48, said it was \u201creally special\u201d to be at Thursday\u2019s tea party, as she had been introduced to the charity by her dance partner Robin Windsor, who died in February 2024 at the age of 44.<\/p>\n
The pair had previously performed a dance together at an event for The Not Forgotten Association.<\/p>\n\n\nVeteran Frank Oldham, 106, with an entertainer during a tea party (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
She said: \u201cWhen I\u2019m here in this room, it just reminds me of him, it\u2019s just a nice memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rihanoff added: \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to be here, it\u2019s a privilege to be here, it\u2019s really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kovalev, 45, said: \u201cIt\u2019s my second year but it\u2019s lovely here, the people are lovely and every time you meet new people with interesting stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank Oldham, 106, who is thought to be the UK\u2019s oldest veteran, described the event as \u201cfantastic\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Oldham, who lives in Romford, Essex, said the decorations in St James\u2019s Palace are \u201camazing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anne, who wore a floral dress and black blazer, is a patron of The Not Forgotten Association, which which recently celebrated its 105th anniversary,<\/p>\n
The charity was founded in the wake of the First World War and currently supports 10,000 beneficiaries a year.<\/p>\n
Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence met around 200 guests at the event.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Princess Royal chatted with veterans and their families during a Christmas Tea Party she hosted in their honour. Anne smiled and laughed as she spoke with the ex-servicemen and women who attended the event at St James\u2019s Palace on Thursday. The princess hosted the tea party for The Not Forgotten Association, which supports veterans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2179084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[419513,419514,419510,419512,419511,419509,324220,419508],"class_list":["post-2179083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-christmas-tea-party","tag-german-battleship-bismarck","tag-ruth-barnwell","tag-st-jamess-palace","tag-tea-party","tag-the-not-forgotten-association","tag-the-princess-royal","tag-womens-royal-naval-service"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Princess-Royal-hosts-veterans-for-festive-tea-party.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179085,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179083\/revisions\/2179085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2179084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}