Tiggy game

Tiggy Legge-Bourke

British royal nanny and personal assistant (born )

Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" PettiferMVO (née Legge-Bourke; born 1 April ) is a Welsh former nanny and companion to Prince William and Prince Harry. She was a personal assistant to Charles III (then Prince of Wales) from to She has used her married name since her marriage to Charles Pettifer in

Background

Legge-Bourke is the daughter of William Legge-Bourke (–), who served in the Royal Horse Guards.[1] After taking a degree at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he became a merchant banker at Kleinwort Benson and was deputy lieutenant of Powys from until his death.[2][3][4] Legge-Bourke's mother, Dame Shân Legge-Bourke (born ), was the only child of Wilfred Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk (–), a soldier who became a colonel in the Grenadier Guards and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire.[5] When Shân Bailey's father died in , she and her mother inherited his estate at Glanusk Park, near Crickhowell in Powys, while his peerage went to a cousin.[6] Shân Legge-Bourke was appointed a lady-in-waiting to the Princess Royal in ,[7] was High Sheriff of Powys in ,[8] and was the Lord Lieutenant of Powys until [9]

Tiggy Legge-Bourke's paternal grandfather, Sir Harry Legge-Bourke (–), was a member of parliament for the Isle of Ely from until and was chairman of the Committee of Conservative backbenchers.[10] His death in led to a by-election won by the LiberalClement Freud.[11][12]

She is a cousin of the public relations executive and television personality Eleanor Legge-Bourke.

Biography for kids amelia earhart She was born Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" Legge-Bourke to parents William Legge-Bourke and Dame Elizabeth Shân Legge-Bourke (née Bailey). Her father William served in the Royal Horse Guards and.

Legge-Bourke was reported in to be fond of fly fishing and long walks in the country.[3]

Early life

Brought up at Glanusk Park, a 6,acre (24&#;km2) estate in Wales,[2] Tiggy Legge-Bourke was educated at Heathfield School, Ascot,[13] which she left with four O-levels,[3] and the Institut Alpin Videmanette at Rougemont in Switzerland, a finishing school also attended by Diana, Princess of Wales.

She has a sister and a brother, Zara and Harry. In Zara (b. ) married Captain Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, also known as Richard Drax.

Legge-Bourke's brother Harry, born in , was a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II between and and became an officer in the Welsh Guards.

In , Legge-Bourke's grandmother Margaret Glenusk, widowed in , married secondly William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle VC KG, who had been Governor-General of Australia from until He thus became step-grandfather to the Legge-Bourke children until his death in [14]

Career

After leaving school, Legge-Bourke took a nursery teacher training course at the St Nicholas Montessori Centre in London.

She then taught for a year in Balham before leaving to set up her own nursery school in Battersea, called Mrs Tiggywinkle's.[3]

In , shortly after Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales had separated,[15] Charles hired Legge-Bourke as nanny to their two sons.[2] As the royal nanny, she soon began to make headlines.

Early controversy came when she said scornfully of the Princess of Wales's attitude towards her sons: "I give them what they need at this stage, fresh air, a rifle and a horse. She gives them a tennis racket and a bucket of popcorn at the movies".[2] It was also considered to be a gaffe when Legge-Bourke referred to William and Harry as "my babies".[2]

She often went with the princes on holidays.[16] A heavy smoker, she was said to be able to smoke even while skiing,[17] and was criticized by Diana for smoking near her sons.[2] In , at the age of thirteen, Prince William, avoiding a difficult choice, asked both of his parents not to attend Eton's Fourth of June celebrations, the high point of the school's year.

However, they were both reported to be taken aback when he invited Legge-Bourke to attend in their place.[18]

Early in , she resigned, but she returned to the royal household only a few months later.[2] On 18 July , while out of Charles's service, she attended the fiftieth-birthday party he threw for Camilla Parker Bowles in Gloucestershire.[19]

She helped to comfort the princes after their mother's death in a road accident in Paris on 31 August [20]

There was anger in when Legge-Bourke allowed the young princes to abseil down the fifty-metre dam of Grwyne Fawr Reservoir in Wales without safety lines or helmets.

Staff at St James's Palace mounted an inquiry, and Legge-Bourke was reported to have been saved only by the princes' adoration of her.[2] The press predicted time and again that Legge-Bourke was about to be sacked, but this never happened.[2]

She finally retired from the Prince of Wales's service when she married in October [2]

Allegations by the Princess of Wales

On 9 December , prime minister John Major announced in the House of Commons that Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales, were to separate but had no plans to divorce.

At the time, Diana was convinced that Charles loved only Camilla Parker Bowles.[21]

As early as October , Diana was writing to Paul Burrell that she believed her husband was now in love with Legge-Bourke and wanted to marry her.[22]

Legge-Bourke later admitted having had a "schoolgirl crush" on Charles, who had been a frequent visitor to her family's estate.[23] Diana's biographer, Lady Colin Campbell, commented that "Charles is only interested in her as an uncle is interested in a younger niece."[23]

On 20 November , a television interview with the Princess of Wales by Martin Bashir was broadcast by the BBC.[15] There was no mention of Legge-Bourke.[21] However, on 24 January , newspapers named Diana as the source of an untrue rumour circulated in November and December that Legge-Bourke had become pregnant by Charles and had had an abortion.[23] The rumours were apparently spread by Bashir as a means to gain an interview with the princess.[24] It was reported that words had been exchanged between Diana and Legge-Bourke on the matter at a party on 14 December , when Diana had said to her "So sorry about the baby",[25] and an "informed source" was quoted as saying "The Queen was absolutely furious and totally in sympathy with Tiggy."[23] On 18 December , Legge-Bourke, with the Queen's agreement, instructed the libel lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck to write to Diana's solicitors demanding an apology, asking that the accusation be "recognised to be totally untrue".[23]

On 22 January , shortly before the story of the unfounded abortion allegation was published, Diana's private secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, as did his assistant Nicole Cockell the next day.[23] Jephson later wrote that Diana had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".[26]

Jealous of her sons' affection for the woman who cared for them, Diana became more hostile towards Legge-Bourke, asking that she leave the room while Diana was talking to her sons on the telephone.[23] In February , newspapers published a letter from Diana to Charles in which she asked that "Miss Legge-Bourke not spend unnecessary time in the children's rooms read to them at night, nor supervise their bathtime."[23]

Charles and Diana's divorce was finalized on 28 August One year later, Diana died in a road accident in Paris on 31 August [15] Much later, Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington headed Operation Paget, an inquiry into the accident which reported its findings on 14 December According to the report, Diana feared that both she and Camilla Parker Bowles were the victims of a plot intended to make it possible for the Prince of Wales to marry a third woman.[27]

As journalists digested Lord Stevens's report, they looked with a fresh eye at the conspiracy theories the report had demolished and tried to construct another out of Charles's supposed love for Legge-Bourke.[28]

The story surfaced again when the British inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed began at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 2 October , headed by Lord Justice Scott Baker sitting as a coroner.

On 6 October , the judge was reported as telling the court that in the evidence of Lord Mishcon, Diana's solicitor, Diana had told him that "Camilla was not really Charles's lover, but a decoy for his real favourite, the nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke".[29]

In December , witnesses at the inquest were questioned about a letter to Paul Burrell from the Princess dating from October , of which only redacted versions had previously been public.

In this letter, the Princess of Wales had written:[30]

This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous – my husband is planning "an accident" in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy. Camilla is nothing but a decoy, so we are all being used by the man in every sense of the word.

On 7 January , Diana's friend Rodney Turner, giving evidence to the inquest, described his shock at seeing the contents of Diana's letter to Burrell,[22] but on 15 January , Maggie Rea, a lawyer in the firm headed by Lord Mishcon (who had died in January ), gave evidence to the inquest about Diana's fears to much the same effect as the letter, based on a note Mishcon had left on his file and on a meeting Rea and a colleague had had with Mishcon in October [31]

In the so-called "Mishcon note", dating from , Diana predicted that in the Queen would abdicate, the Prince of Wales would discard Parker Bowles in favour of Legge-Bourke, and that she would herself die in a planned road crash.[32] Before he died, Mishcon copied the note to the Metropolitan Police, who took no action on it.[32]

On 7 October , the journalist Jasper Gerard mocked the "conspiracy theorists" promoting ever-stranger notions of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales:[33]

There will still be folk a century on tapping their noses sagely while reading new revelations: it was Tiggy Legge-Bourke and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hiding in the underpass with a flashlight and a bottle of Gordon's.

In September , Legge-Bourke was offered significant damages by the BBC after an investigation into how the interview was obtained and amid reports that Martin Bashir himself had provided Diana with a faked abortion "receipt" which led Diana to believe that Legge-Bourke had become pregnant following an affair with Prince Charles.[34]

On 21 July , the BBC in a High Court public apology to Legge-Bourke, in London, stated, "The BBC accepts that the allegations made against the claimant were wholly baseless, should never have been made, and that the BBC did not, at the time, adequately investigate serious concerns over the circumstances in which the BBC secured the Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales." The BBC will pay substantial damages and legal costs to the claimant.[35][36]

Marriage and children

In October she married Charles Pettifer, a former Coldstream Guards officer, with two sons from a previous marriage,[37] commenting to the press "He is magic".[2] She reportedly did not invite Camilla Parker Bowles to her wedding and Prince Charles did not attend because he had a prior engagement.[2] Princes William and Harry attended the wedding.[16]

Legge-Bourke and Pettifer had a brief romance while they were teenagers at school in the s (she at Heathfield, he at Eton).

They stayed friends while he was married to Camilla Wyatt, and Legge-Bourke was godmother to one of their sons.[13] Until May , Pettifer was company secretary and a director of Unique Security Consultants Ltd., providing former Special Air Service officers as bodyguards. He then became chief executive of Rapport Research and Analysis Ltd, supplying companies with former SAS officers for protection work.[13]

In recent years, she has developed a farmhouse bed and breakfast business at Ty'r Chanter, near Crickhowell on the Glanusk estate, billed as "The Tiggy Experience".[38]

In April , she attended the Sovereign's Parade at Sandhurst for Prince Harry's passing out as an officer of the Blues and Royals.[39] In November , the Prince of Wales was reported to be a regular visitor to Pettifer and her family in Powys.[40]

Tiggy and Charles Pettifer were two of the one hundred and fifty guests invited to Camilla's sixtieth birthday party on 21 July [41] Tiggy Pettifer also attended the service of thanksgiving for the sixtieth anniversary of the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey on 19 November [42] Tiggy's son, Tom Pettifer was a page boy at Prince William's wedding in and the former nanny was also a special guest at Prince Harry's wedding in [43][44]

On 1 January , Tiggy's stepson, Edward Pettifer, was killed in the New Orleans truck attack.

  • Biography of famous people for kids
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    • Charles III and Prince William subsequently publicly expressed their condolences.[45][46][47]

    Honours

    Pettifer was appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in the New Year Honours.[20][48]

    Ancestry

    Ancestors of Tiggy Legge-Bourke
    Hon.

    Sir Henry Charles Legge (–), a son of William Legge, 5th Earl of Dartmouth

    Lieutenant Nigel Walter Henry Legge-Bourke (–)
    Amy Gwendoline Lambart (c. – )
    Sir Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke (–)
    Charles Wynn-Carington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire (–)
    Lady Victoria Alexandrina Wynn-Carington (–)
    Hon.

    Cecilia Margaret Harbord (–), a dau. of Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield

    William Nigel Henry Legge-Bourke (–)
    Sir Arthur Henry Grant of Monymusk, 9th Baronet (–)
    Sir Arthur Grant of Monymusk, 10th Baronet (–)
    Mary, dau.

    of Captain H. Sholto Douglas, 42nd Highlanders

    Catherine Jean Grant (–)
    Collingwood Lindsay Wood, deputy lieutenant of Perthshire
    Evelyn Alice Lindsay Wood (b.

  • Tiggy legge-bourke at harry's wedding
  • Harry legge-bourke
  • Lillie'' piccio
  • Tiggy why

    • )

    Frances Charlotte Agnes Hotham, dau. of Rev. Charles George Beaumont Hotham
    Alexandra Shân (Tiggy) Legge-Bourke
    Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk (–)
    Joseph Bailey, 2nd Baron Glanusk (–)
    Mary Ann Lucas, dau.

    of Henry John Lucas MD (–) of Glanyrafon, Crickhowell

    Wilfred Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk (–)
    Major Warden Sergison (–), of Cuckfield Park, Sussex
    Editha Elma Sergison (–)
    Emilia Gordon-Cumming, dau.

    of Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 2nd Baronet

    Elizabeth Shân Josephine Bailey (b. )
    Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. Shoubridge, Indian Army
    Major-General (Thomas) Herbert Shoubridge (–)
    Margaret Eldrydd Shoubridge (–)
    Major Herbert Dugdale, 16th Lancers
    Gladys Constance Dugdale

    Sources for family tree:

    • Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage (th edition, )
    • Who's Who and Who Was Who
    • Ruvigny & Raineval, Marquis of, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Anne of Exeter Volume (London: T.

      C. & E. C. Jack, ) p.&#;

    • Memorial Fountain, Crickhowell at web site of Public Monument and Sculpture Association's National Recording Project
    • Lucas, Sir Charles Prestwood (–) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, )
    • Descendants of Henry VIII, King of England at

    References

    1. ^"No.

      ". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 December p.&#;

    2. ^ abcdefghijkl"Tiggy Legge-Bourke".

      The Guardian.

      Online biography for kids Whether accompanying them on stalking trips or safari holidays abroad, Tiggy Legge-Bourke was an ever-present mother figure to Princes William and Harry.

      13 October Retrieved 30 January

    3. ^ abcdSecond Front: Pass Notes , Tiggy Legge-Bourke in The Guardian (London, England) dated 8 November , p. 3.
    4. ^"No. ". The London Gazette. 19 March p.&#;
    5. ^GLANUSK, Wilfred Russell Bailey, 3rd Baron in Who Was Who – (London, A.

      & C. Black, reprint: ISBN&#;X).

    6. ^Tiggy's grandmother leaves £3m to family in will; LEGACY: Dowager Viscountess bequeaths 6,acre (24&#;km2) estate to relatives in the Western Mail of Cardiff, dated 24 August , online at Retrieved 5 February
    7. ^"No. ".

      Biography for 2nd graders

      Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" Pettifer MVO (née Legge-Bourke; born 1 April ) is a Welsh former nanny and companion to Prince William and Prince Harry. She was a personal assistant to Charles III (then Prince of Wales) from to

      The London Gazette. 15 January p.&#;

    8. ^"No. ". The London Gazette. 25 March p.&#;
    9. ^"No. ". The London Gazette. 17 August p.&#;
    10. ^Legge-Bourke, Sir Edward Alexander Henry in Who Was Who – (London, A.

      & C. Black, reprint: ISBN&#; ).

    11. ^F. W. S. Craig (ed.), British Parliamentary Election Results – (London, Parliamentary Research Services, ).
    12. ^"No. ". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 August p.&#;
    13. ^ abcWho's working for who now Tiggy and the Spook in Punch #93 for 6–19 November online at Retrieved 18 February
    14. ^DE L'ISLE, William Philip Sidney, 1st Viscount, in Who Was Who – (London, A.

      & C. Black, ISBN&#;).

    15. ^ abcTimeline: Diana, Princess of Wales online at BBC News 24 web site. Retrieved 30 January
    16. ^ abTiggy enjoys a right royal wedding dated 16 October , online at Retrieved 5 February
    17. ^Nannies by Simon Jeffery in Guardian Unlimited dated 24 January , online at Retrieved 30 January
    18. ^ROYAL PROFILES Prince William from The Royal Report, September issue, online at Retrieved 30 January
    19. ^Happy birthday Camilla, from Jilly, Tiggy, Melvyn and all the gang by Susie Steiner in The Guardian dated 19 July Retrieved 30 January
    20. ^ abNew Year's Honours for Wales at , dated 30 December Retrieved 31 January
    21. ^ abLady Colin Campbell, The Real Diana ().
    22. ^ abDiana affair over before crash, inquest told by Rosalind Ryan in The Guardian online, article dated 7 January Retrieved 30 January
    23. ^ abcdefghDenworth, Lydia; Wright, Margaret (12 February ).

      "Diana Draws Blood Lashing out at Tiggy brings a legal warning and enrages the Queen". Time. Archived from the original on 11 February Retrieved 30 January

    24. ^Mendick, Robert (17 September ). "BBC to pay Tiggy Legge-Bourke 'significant' damages over Martin Bashir smears". The Telegraph.

      Retrieved 18 September

    25. ^Seeing through the myths in The Independent online, dated 16 June Retrieved 2 February
    26. ^Jephson, Patrick, Shadows of a Princess (London, October ), extract published in The Sunday Times newspaper, 24 September
    27. ^Operation Paget ReportArchived 30 December at the Wayback Machine at the web site of the Metropolitan Police Service.

      Retrieved 30 January

    28. ^William passes muster with grandma (and Kate) by Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian online, article dated 16 December Retrieved 30 January
    29. ^Let's dig up Diana again by Catherine Bennett in The Guardian online, article dated 6 October Retrieved 30 January
    30. ^Princess Diana letter: 'Charles plans to kill me' by Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter, in The Daily Telegraph online, article dated 20 December Retrieved 31 January
    31. ^Diana 'backed William as next king' by Press Association in The Guardian online, article dated 15 January Retrieved 30 January [dead link&#;]
    32. ^ abFormer Met chief 'was a party to Diana's murder by keeping death prophecy secret by Alan Hamilton in The Times online, article dated 18 January Retrieved 30 January [dead link&#;]
    33. ^Diana?

      There will always be someone who thinks it's all about Clacton by Jasper Gerard in The Guardian online, article dated 7 October Retrieved 30 January

    34. ^Petit, Stephanie (19 September ). "Royal Nanny Offered 'Significant' Damages for Martin Bashir's Slander to Secure Princess Diana Interview". People. Retrieved 8 July
    35. ^Glass, Jess (21 July ).

      "BBC to pay 'substantial' damages to William and Harry's former nanny". Evening Standard. Retrieved 21 July

    36. ^"BBC to pay damages to former royal nanny". BBC News. 21 July Retrieved 21 July
    37. ^Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, th edition (Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, ), vol.

      1, p.

    38. ^The Tiggy ExperienceArchived 8 February at the Wayback Machine at , official web site. Retrieved 1 February
    39. ^In pictures: Prince Harry passes out of Sandhurst (see picture 6) at CBBC online, page dated 12 April Retrieved 2 February
    40. ^After 37 years as Prince of Wales, Charles finally buys a home there, page 2[dead link&#;] by Simon de Bruxelles in The Times online, article dated 23 November Retrieved 30 January
    41. ^Camilla sticks to the county set for her 60th birthday bash[dead link&#;] by Robert Booth and Christopher Morgan in The Sunday Times online, article dated 22 July Retrieved 30 January
    42. ^Service of Celebration for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip's Diamond Wedding Anniversary, page of photographs at Retrieved 2 February
    43. ^"The Nanny at the Wedding".

      The New York Times. 29 April Retrieved 23 July

    44. ^"Prince Harry's much-loved nannies make appearance on his wedding day". Hello Magazine. 19 May Retrieved 23 July
    45. ^"New Orleans attack: King deeply saddened by Briton Edward Pettifer's death".

      Tiggy legge bourke biography for kids Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" Pettifer MVO (née Legge-Bourke; born 1 April ) is a Welsh former nanny and companion to Prince William and Prince Harry. She was a personal assistant to Charles III (then Prince of Wales) from to

      BBC News. 4 January Retrieved 4 January

    46. ^"King 'deeply saddened' by death of royal nanny's stepson in New Orleans attack". ITV News. 4 January
    47. ^"Prince William 'saddened' after former nanny's stepson killed in New Orleans attack". The Independent.

      Biography of famous people for kids: Tiggy Legge-Bourke, also known as Alexandra Pettifer, was stepmother to Edward Pettifer, who died in terrorist attack on Bourbon Street. Here are her ties to Royal family, Prince William and.

      4 January Retrieved 4 January

    48. ^"No. ". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December p.&#;4.