Wrote the Diary for Britain's Spectator this week spectator.co.uk/2020/01/i-was-…
But some stuff ended on the cutting room floor, so ... Canada last had a Governor General from the royal family in 1911-1916, a son of Queen Victoria named Arthur. He did a good job, but a much *better* job was done by his daughter, Patricia.
It was for her that the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry was named, the PPCLI, a regiment that survives to this day. My late father-in-law Peter Worthington served with the PPCLI in the Korean war.
Patricia was so popular (and so good-looking) that she graced the Canadian $1 bill issued in 1917, only the second time in Canadian history that a woman other than a serving monarch appeared on the currency. (The wife of an earlier Governor General was the first.)
But here's the true resonance with the past. Patricia fell in love with and married a non-titled man. Granted, the man in question was the son of an earl and a future admiral and sea lord. Still - no title. As part of the marriage deal, Patricia too "stepped away" from royalty.
And ... it all seems to have worked out happily ever after. Patricia continued her career as a painter. She was an accomplished amateur, heavily influenced by Gaughin and the pre-war Fauvists. EG: 
Patricia died in 1974, aged 87, only a few months after her admiral husband. She doesn't seem to have missed any of the royal fuss, ever.
-end-
-end-
TYPO alert
Gauguin
not
Gaughin
U and H keys are too near!!
Gauguin
not
Gaughin
U and H keys are too near!!
