Looking back at Princess Anne's many visits to Kent and Medway as she celebrates her 70th birthday
06:00, 15 August 2020
updated: 17:21, 22 November 2022
As she turns 70 today, Princess Anne can reflect on thousands of official visits to places right across the country.
We can reveal that the Queen's only daughter has been on 41 official trips to Kent down the years, made up of 81 separate engagements.
Her visits were either at the request of The Lord Lieutenant of Kent - Her Majesty's representative in the county - or to visit her charities, patronages or military connections.
She also attended Benenden school near Cranbrook where she remains closely connected and often hosts and attends events.
One of her most recent trips to the county came in February when she visited Tenterden to open a £7.5m sheltered housing complex in Danemore, where she chatted with residents.
It came just weeks after she paid a trip to Medway and Maidstone hospitals in December.
On her visit to Maidstone, she officially opened the hospital's new helipad, which will mainly be used by the air ambulance.
She then headed to the maternity and emergency department at Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, to meet staff and patients.
The mother-of-two is an old hand at such visits.
In 1971 aged just 21, she met and chatted with people as she opened a £500,000 outpatients wing at West Hill Hospital in Dartford.
The Princess Royal is a patron of The Royal College of Midwives and The Royal College of Emergency Medicine and was looking at improvements made by the award-winning Medway unit.
She is part of more than 300 charities organisations and military regiments, and regularly tops the leader board as the family member carrying out the most public engagements.
She is also a keen sportswoman, winning BBC Sports Personality of the year in 1971 and is the mother of Olympic silver medal-winning Zara Phillips.
Horse-lover Anne was again in Kent in 2017 when she headed to the Arrow riding centre in Darenth Park Avenue, Dartford.
Her Royal Highness arrived via helicopter, touching down at the nearby Leigh Academy, and was shown round the centre and introduced to those who keep it running.
At the time the centre was aiming to raise more than £200,000 for a few key projects later that year, including £196,000 for an extension of the indoor area, which would make it eligible to host qualifying events for the Paralympics.
The 70-year-old has visited Kent a number of times for sports-related trips, including in November 1986 when she took part in the 3pm Leeds Amateur Riders' Stakes, At Folkestone racecourse.
Princess Anne rode 'Glowing Promise' and managed to finish in third place.
Just 14 years prior to her Folkestone race she became the first member of the Royal family to compete in the Kent County Show, where she again came third in the Spillers Open competition.
In August 1968, she was pictured with her mother keenly watching the Eridge Horse Trials in Tunbridge Wells.
Queen Elizabeth handed out trophies for the event, including a fifth place rosette for her only daughter who came fifth in the class for novice under-21s.
In 2011, Princess Anne swapped horse and saddle for an air pistol as she helped open Medway Park in Gillingham which kick started the five-day modern pentathlon European Championships.
During the visit she spoke to pupils from St Nicholas Infants' school and tried her hand at some shooting with some of Europe's then top athletes at the former Black Lion Leisure Centre.
It wasn't the royal's first visit to the Towns as she generated crowds in 1996 when she opened the Medway Tunnel, a route now used by thousands each day.
Princess Anne also visited a Kent Messenger stand in 2003 at a Chatham Navy Days event where she took time to speak to some of the people involved in Pride of Medway.
Heading to the other side of the county, Her Royal Highness, has had a fare share of her fun visits to Dover.
In October 1969, the then 19-year-old, named the second of British Rail's Seaspeed hovercrafts after herself.
During her trip, she unveiled a nameplate, signed a portrait of herself inside the terminal building and then took a 30-minute trip on the hovercraft to the Goodwin Sands and back.
It wasn't until 22 years later she would come face to face with a giant seagull and crab.
During another trip to the town in 1991, Princess Anne was pictured alongside former district council chairman Paul Watkins as she walked past mascots Corporal Crabbe and Sid Seagull on her way to open the White Cliff's Experience in the town, before leaving an hour later after touring the heritage centre.
In the same year Anne - who was the first member of the Royal family to be convicted of a criminal offence after her dog bit two children - paid a visit to Faversham on her trip to the Citizens' Advice Bureau, where she was pictured chatting to a two-year-old, named Patrick Hall, in the streets.
One of the Princess's lesser-known links to Kent comes in the form of Strood hero Ronnie Russell who helped save her from an attempted kidnapping in London in 1974.
The former boxer received the George Medal after he floored a man who was trying to take the Queen's daughter.
However, Mr Russell was forced to sell his gong last year for £50,000 to pay of expecting funeral costs due to poor health and and to pay of a Las Vegas wedding he got on credit.
