the world. Diana, Princess of Wales, was that person at the end of this century.

A high born but obviously shy young woman she married the Prince of Wales when she was just 20 years old and turned herself into the most popular woman in the world, outreaching, friendly, personable and glamorous almost beyond belief.

It would have been very easy, even after her divorce, for this young woman to simply enjoy the privileges that her station and her public talents bestowed on her. But she chose to serve those less fortunate than herself, those who suffered the ravages of disease and hunger, homelessness and the consequences of war.

The huge outpouring of public grief in Britain and throughout the world is ample proof of the love and affection in which Princess Diana was held by the great and the famous and by the people in the street who knew her as a tireless contributor to humanity.

The tragic circumstances of her death will be debated for years to come but the real tragedy is the deprivation it will mean to the causes she served. She was one of the few people in this world who was truly irreplacable. She knew instinctively how to use the press to publicise and support her causes and to attract attention to her missions of mercy. She sometimes seemed almost an enemy of the monarchy she had joined but she knew that her status gave her an entre few could achieve.

There is no other person who almost single handedly could have taught the world the ravages of left over landmines. Her actions and the publicity they attracted caused the people of the world to be aware of the senseless slaughter of land mines and encouraged governments to confer and to act.

Landmines was just one of her humanitarian causes but it is symbolic of the hope her tireless work gave to victims. She was unique in her service as the People's Princess.

Her concern was unfailing even when her personal life was unhappy and that was not infrequent. The world is concerned today for her two adolescent princes who have already had to undergo their parents' public and scandal ridden divorce, the admissions of adultery and their parents' affairs with other people. Their future will not be an easy one without their loving mother for whom they came first and Prince Charles will have the unenviable task of being a single parent to two boys who were born to serve. It was indicative of his concern that he returned to Balmoral Castle on Sunday evening after escorting their mother's body home from Paris.

Princess Diana's private life sometimes appeared unseemly for a member of the very traditional Royal Family. She lived her life in public and she must have known that dinner with a controversial companion at the Ritz Hotel in Paris would attact attention but she could not have known the tragic end of that attention. The role of the photographers in her death is still to be debated but it must and it will be carefully scrutinised after next Saturday's state funeral and her burial which will return her to her family.

Right now the world she captivated is still stunned, almost unbelieving that she is gone forever but knowing that there will only be one unique and caring Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.