Interpreting and Representing Dark Tourism

Born on July 1^st 1961, Lady Diana, as she was first known, married Charles, the Prince of Wales and had two children, William and Harry. Diana undertook a wide range of royal duties and helped with many charities. After her divorce from the Prince of Wales, Diana was still regarded as a member of the royal family (www.royal.gov.uk). On August 31^st 1997, the Princess was involved in a high speed car crash in the Place de l’Alma underpass in Paris, France, where she was then taken to the La Pitie Salpetriere hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. Unfortunately the Princess had passed away. Also in the car with her was her companion and the driver of the car who also regrettably died. Additionally a bodyguard was in the car too, and he was just seriously injured. There was a widespread of mourning for the Princess when the world had heard of her death, and her funeral took place a week later on September 6^th 1997 (www.royal.gov.uk).

 

As Diana was still considered a member of the royal family, even after her divorce from Charles, she was still well known and loved all around the world from patriots of the royal family to young children, and of charities that she had helped all over the world. After the news of her death had spread around the world very quickly, tributes were pouring in to pay their respects to her family and also the royal family, as William and Harry had just lost their mother. Many famous people spoke out and paid their respects, these included Tony Blair, who was at the time the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan who was the UN secretary-general, Lionel Jospin, Nelson Mandela, Imran Khan, Helmut Kohl, John Howard and Cardinal Basil Hume, who were all world leaders and the leader of the Roman Catholic Church at the present time of Diana’s death (Donnelly 1997:115-119).

 

Diana will be forever known as the Princess of Wales or Lady Diana before she was married. The amount of charity work that she had completed and was on going was tremendous and many of these charities are still on going in remembrance to her name. Another reason as to why she will always be remembered is because she is the mother of the future King in line to the throne, William, and his brother, Harry. In 2013 William and his wife Catherine gave birth to a baby boy, who will also now be in line to throne; unfortunately Diana was not around to witness the birth of her first grandchild but she was widely remembered after this event.

 

When Diana had died there was a lot of memorabilia of her and many items of kitsch that were sold in her memory. Many people who visited London around or after the time of her death would buy a kitchen towel with her face on or a picture of London so that they could remember their trip to London, but also the face of a great Princess whose life had been lost tragically. Princess Diana cameo scarves, plates and dishes and coin and stamp collections are still available to buy to remember her life (www.historicroyalpalaces.com). Although these souvenirs and kitsch make the life of the Princess look dull and cheap, they bring in a lot of money.

 

Diana will always be remembered not just in British history, but all over the world as the Princess who died too soon. In Althorp where her body is buried, there is a black silhouette of her which visitors can see on the tiny island. Other memorials include 2 being in Harrods in London, a memorial fountain in Hyde Park, and a memorial directly above the tunnel where the crash took place and killed her. Having the memorials in Harrods and at Hyde Park allows everybody to visit her and pay their respects everyday of the year; however, the island in Althorp where her body is buried is only open to the public for a short time every year where people can pay their respects (Best , cited in Frew and White 2013:213-214).