Carlie Kreutzer

Mr. Palcsey

Honors English 10

1 May 2018

Princess Diana: Humanitarian

“I want to go where hearts are mending,” (Burrell 82). This statement by Diana: Princess

of Wales perfectly sums up her personality as a missionary. Princess Diana not only longed to

help her brothers and sisters in need, but she additionally exemplified compassion toward every

soul, whether they were wealthy or destitute, whether they were strangers or close friends, and

whether they were sick or healthy. Princess Diana’s work through charity and as a humanitarian

had a lasting impact on those who were depicted as “lesser” because of their illness or financial

status, the royal family, and society’s view of humanity as a whole.

The fight against HIV AIDS constituted one of the most well-known and significant

causes Diana supported. The clinician in charge of opening an AIDS war in London, Dr. Mike

Alder, wrote a letter to Buckingham Palace asking whether a member of the Royal Family would

prepare to open the ward (Clayton and Craig 158). The clinicians originally asked Prince Charles

if he would attend the opening of the ward. Charles, being too busy to attend the opening, told

the clinicians to consider asking Diana to attend, and they went for it (Clayton and Craig 158).

Dr. Alder suggested that if the world saw Diana shaking hands with an AIDS patient, it would

assist in easing public anxiety, and removing stereotypes in which society associated with AIDS.

"We hope if people see the Princess of Wales opening the ward it will help to demystify and

destigmatize AIDS,” (Clayton and Craig 190). The palace initially asked Diana to wear gloves
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when shaking hands with an AIDS patient, but she refused (Clayton and Craig 158). Diana

stunned clinicians with how much empathy and compassion she showed. After the opening, Dr.

Alder spoke about her loving charisma, "She later spoke in almost religous terms of the deep

serenity she felt as she shared quiet hand-holding moments with the terminally sick, simply

sitting, smiling and listening to them speak about their feeling," (Clayton and Craig 159).

Margaret Jay, head of National AIDS Trust, commented on the feelings of AIDS patients when

Diana visited, "They [AIDS patients] didn't feel, in any sense, that this was some figure from a

completely different planet who was talking to them, or patronizing them in any way," (Clayton

and Craig 159). The responses from the AIDS patients themselves debatably played the most

important factor in ensuring Diana’s personality was not “fake” or “air-brushed”. Diana

continuously said how meeting the terminally ill made her feel strangely happy at times and how

she hated having to leave them.

Princess Diana felt extremely connected to the sick. Diana's emotional attachment with

AIDS patients came from her friendship with a London art dealer named Adrian Ward-Jackson,

whom she met in the mid-1980s during a ballet gala at Sadler's Wells theater in London. They

became close friends and when he learned he was HIV-positive, he confided in Diana

immediately and she became interested in the disease (Smith 190). She changed the face of how

society viewed those with HIV AIDS, or the terminally ill in general. Former US President Bill

Clinton at the Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture of AIDS in December 2001 described Diana’s

contributions; "In 1987, when so many people believed that AIDS could be contracted through

casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. She

showed the world that people with AIDS deserve not isolation but compassion and kindness. It

helped change world opinion and gave hope to people with AIDS,” (Burrell 83, 84). Because of
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Diana’s contributions, those with AIDS felt more human again, rather than the outliers of society

they were being treated as.

Princess Diana widely expressed an interest on the effects of landmines and explosives of

war to communities. Millions of landmines had been laid all over war zones since WWI,

especially in Angola. When armies left the war zones, minefields were left behind, which would

eventually kill and injure civilians and make farmland unstable (Clayton and Craig 308). Veteran

Daily Telegraph man Bill Deeds was involved with the issue of landmines since 1991, and he

appreciated how powerful Diana could be to the cause. She travelled to Angola as part of the Red

Cross, not as part of the Palace or an official government visit. Before she left on the trip, she

sought advice from Mike Whitlam, director of the British Red Cross on what clothes to wear; she

did not want to distract the focus of her tour. This showed how she had her full attention on

helping the people in the community. After visiting the war-torn city, she had a new found

prospective on the problems of the citizens living in that environment. Diana thanked Whitlam

for letting her see Angola as it really was, as a worker getting closer to the issue and to the

people (Clayton and Craig 312).

Diana made the victims of landmines feel most relevant in society, and as if they had a

meaning again, like no other person ever had before. Christina Lamb, Red Cross interpreter who

volunteered as Diana’s Portuguese speaker, said, “There’s no electricity, no television, no

newspapers outside of Luanda. So, it’s probably one of the few places she could go to and people

really had no idea who she was,” (Clayton and Craig 315). Thus, the people in Angola had no

previous misconceptions on who Diana was and the fact that she was a part of the royal family.

While volunteering, Diana had comforted a little girl who was severely injured by a land mine.

After Diana had finished talking to the girl, the girl asked Christina Lamb if Diana was an angel.
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Christina Lamb precisely explains Diana’s personality, "She had this kind of aura bout her,

which I've only seen really I would say with Nelson Mandela - he has the same thing - where he

somehow is able to transmit this force of personality and of caring to people, " (Clayton and

Craig 318). Therefore, Diana had the ability to assure each person they had self-worth. Diana’s

work had such an impact that in December 1997 (four months after her death), The Ottawa

Treaty was signed by several governments, creating an international ban on the use of anti-

personnel landmines (Burrell 83).

One of Princess Diana’s staples of her personality was her overwhelming sense of

compassion and empathy toward others. For example, when she found out one of her closest

friends, Rosa Monckton, had given birth to a stillborn baby girl, she sent her butler, Paul Burrell,

on a special mission. She directed Paul to dig a grave for the baby in the garden of Kensington

Palace. Rosa and her husband Dominic had the child’s funeral in the garden, and Diana even

made sure a key was cut for the couple, so they were able to visit their baby, Natalia, at any time

of the day (Burrell 77). Burrell commented on her actions during the funeral for Natalia, "She

knew just what to say and do in the most difficult circumstances. She had an innate ability to

ease suffering," (Burrell 78). Diana’s understanding of other’s emotions made her a reliable and

trustworthy source when it came to giving advice. Additionally, Diana took on more causes un

the late eighties: drug and alcohol abuse, the hospice movement, mentally handicapped children,

leprosy, and marriage counseling. In 1988, Diana began to sit in on sex therapy sessions and

played the role of the overwrought mother and expressed an interest in working with couples

facing divorce (Smith 193). It was ironic that Diana had attended these sessions because she and

Charles had not engaged in marital counseling themselves before they had gotten divorced. But,

after her separation from Prince Charles, she discovered a new, stronger, independent self.
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Shortly after their separation, she made the statement, "The self must know stillness before it can

discover its true song," (Burrell 88). She helped provide hope to the people struggling with either

a sickness or a bad financial status. Lastly, the princess found her mission in life in Calcutta in

1992 when she visited Mother Teresa's home for the sick, the starving, and the dying. After she

visited Calcutta, she believed she had a mission to help the sick and the dying wherever she was

in the world. She felt so connected to the underprivileged and wanted the world to realize they

were still human, "We're all equal, regardless of where we've got to in life," (Burrell 84).

“I feel I can help them,” (Burrell 83). Princess Diana exhibited her overwhelming sense

of mercy and consideration for those in suffering. Her work as a humanitarian left an enduring

impression on the world. Diana’s work with AIDS led to society ending the generalizations made

with the disease. The Ottawa Treaty, banning the use of anti-personnel landmines worldwide was

a direct result of Diana consistently advocating for the innocent citizens injured and killed from

by the landmines. She was ceaseless when helping others, especially those with mental health

issues, those traumatized from a specific event, or those struggling through an issue. Thus,

Princess Diana’s work as a humanitarian directly affected the way society and the royal family

viewed the less fortunate people in the world.

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Works Cited

Clayton, Tim, and Phil Craig. Diana: Story of a Princess. Atria Books, 2003.

Burrell, Paul. The Way We Were: Remembering Diana. Harper Collins, 2006.

Smith, Sally Bedell. Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess. New American
Library, 2000.