UK: The House of Windsor and the Spencer family put past differences behind them yesterday as Queen Elizabeth opened the Diana, Princess of Wales, memorial fountain in London's Hyde Park, writes Frank Millar in London
Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, and her sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, sat alongside Prince Charles, Princes William and Harry and the Duke of Edinburgh as the queen recalled the "sense of shock, grief and sadness" which followed the princess's death in a car crash in Paris seven years ago.
In a deeply personal tribute Queen Elizabeth acknowledged the "difficult times" in Diana's life but said "memories mellow with the passing of the years". By any standard, Diana's tragic death had held the attention of the world: "Central to this remains the extraordinary effect Diana had on those around her.
"Her drive to empathise with those in difficulty, hardship or distress, her willingness to embrace a new cause, her shrewd ability to size up all those she met, allowed her not only to touch people's lives but to change them." This, she said, was her wider legacy.
However, the queen continued: "I cannot forget - nor can those here today who knew her much more personally as sister, wife, mother or daughter-in-law - the Diana who made such an impact on our lives. Of course there were difficult times, but memories mellow with the passing of the years. I remember especially the happiness she gave to my two grandsons."
Such memories were most people's memorials, the departed live on in those they have helped shape in life, the queen continued.
"But for some exceptional people there is a need for something more, a permanent and more public recognition. To present a likeness seemed at best unnecessary for someone whose image continues to exert such a fascination the world over. To find some other way to capture her spirit has been the challenge."
And Lord Spencer agreed that this "highly original memorial" had captured "something of the essence of a remarkable human being". Water flows east and west at varying speeds, invigorated by jets, rocking then resembling a babbling brook, with water bubbles appearing as it approaches a waterfall before entering a water feature created by its flow over carved stone, before converging in the reflecting pool and then restarting the cycle, he said.
"I think she (Diana) would have loved it. It's fun."
He said it was "a clever design" and was "inclusive" as people could enjoy it and children would be able to paddle in it. His late mother Frances Shand Kydd had criticised the memorial precisely because of its "lack of grandeur".