OTD in 1997, twenty eight years ago, Lady Di was killed. Have things ever been quite the same since?

I met her twice, this was in 1992, for some reason I think it was the day after John Major formally announced her divorce from Charles. She visited the Sqn (1(F)), and walked over to me.

She remembered I had twins and she asked how they were. As I look at this picture now, I remember how I felt then, my dry mouth and thumping heart are still seared into my memory. Her eyes were a little red but they were absolutely stunning, depthless and beguiling. She was on the slender side of very slim too.

After some small talk, she said “What’s that?” I told her it was the Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle and she asked if it hurt when fired. Part of me obviously thought I was in Regiment JNCO mode in the bar, so I wanted to say that it hurt the person on the receiving end more, but I simply told her it didn’t, and she asked me how effective its range was, or something like that.

Part of me still wanted to be an absolute dick and say “With me behind it, about fifteen feet” but I just said something like “Depends Ma’am, but just under a couple of kilometres.” Harry, at her sleeve, yelped with excitement and tugging it, looked up at her and said “Mummy, when I grow up I want to be a soldier!”. She looked at him, smiled and said “Not on your Nellie”.

She turned to me and smiled almost apologetically, and I shrugged and said “None of us have ever grown up yet, that’s why we do this”. She laughed, told me she hoped my children were enjoying pre school or whatever they were in at the time, asked me to say hello to them or some such thing, wished me good luck, and moved on.

After she left, the media mobbed us and one asked me what Harry was getting excited about and what he said. Given the role the media had played in her life, I think we mumbled that it was just small talk and we ambled off.

On the day that she died, I was about to ride down to RAF Benson from my house in Stilton. The news broke on the BBC and I shepherded the children in to watch it because I wanted them to say they saw it, just as my dad got me up to watch the first moon landing.

I’ve got some video of them doing so, which one day they will show in turn to their families I suppose. She would be 64 now, which I find almost unbelievable. But instead, she will forever be young I suppose.

Rather crazily, in exactly a month, my daughter will pass the age at which Diana died, which is even more insane. Such a tragedy for those young children to lose their mum *and* go through that circus. Beyond awful.