As Prince William conducts his investitures at Windsor Castle today, one ceremony will be particularly moving.
He will confer an MBE on Claire van Straubenzee, a close family confidant, whose son Henry, Prince Harry’s childhood best friend, died in a car accident at the age of 18.
His death in 2002 inspired her to launch the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund to raise money for education in Uganda in 2007, in honor of his plans to teach at a school in the African country during his gap year before heading to university. from Newcastle.
As she picks up her gong, Claire will be accompanied by her husband Alexander, 73, and their sons Thomas, 41, and Charlie, 35, who are still close to Harry and William.
But although the Duke of Sussex landed in London yesterday to attend a service commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games at St Paul’s Cathedral later today, he is not expected to join the gathering.
Henry, nicknamed ‘Henners’ by Prince Harry, who wrote about him in his autobiography, Spare, became the royal’s best friend after they met at their prep school, Ludgrove Prep in Berkshire.
“Skinny, muscleless, and with his hair standing up in permanent surrender, Henners was all heart,” he wrote. “Every time he smiled, people melted.”
The duke said in his memoirs that Henry was the only child who asked him about his mother, Princess Diana, after she died in a car accident in 1997.
Prince Harry with Prince William receive a kiss from Claire van Straubenzee at the launch of the charity named in honor of their son Henry, who died in a car accident in 2002. Henry and Harry were childhood best friends.
Henry was 18 when his car crashed into a tree near the former Ludgrove Prep school, where he and Harry were working on a gap year.
Prince Harry was the best friend of Henry ‘Henners’ van Straubenzee. Above: Harry at the launch of the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund
Their family’s celebration today will be bittersweet as it comes just weeks after Claire and Alex announced that they will be closing their charity before the end of the year.
It will also mark the end of another shared venture between Prince William and Prince Harry, who have been patrons of the charity since 2009, the only one under their joint patronage.
“This decision has not been taken lightly and is in no way the result of financial difficulties,” the announcement on the charity’s website said.
“The charity’s key trustees will be over 70 by the end of 2024 and feel the time is right to close.”
The charity was launched with an initial private donation of £3,000 to Bupadhengo School in Kamuli, where Henry was due to teach, and has since raised more than £3.3 million and helped more than 35,000 children.
The statement ends: “Above all, we feel that the charity has left a lasting memory for our son Henry and has helped our family overcome the pain of their loss.”
The brothers were presented with bottles of champagne at a reception to mark the launch of the Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial Fund in January 2008.
Alex and Claire Van Straubenzee at their home near Grantham. Claire will receive an MBE from Prince William later today
Henry died when the car he was traveling in crashed into a tree near Ludgrove Prep, where he worked on his gap year.
In Spare, Harry described how the news of Henry’s death had terrible echoes of the moment his father, then Prince Charles, told him his mother had died.
She noted that, “just like Mom,” Henry was not wearing a seat belt.
“The news must have come in the form of a phone call, although I only vaguely remember holding the phone and hearing the words,” he wrote.
Claire remembered the 3am phone call telling her about the accident.
‘Charlie was with us when we found out. He said, “Who am I going to play with now?” she told him. Sunday weather.
Both princes attended the funeral and Harry recalled how he queued up to hug Henry’s parents and his friend’s two brothers.
Harry and William have been active supporters of the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund, playing polo to help raise funds and attending its annual carol concert in Chelsea.
In December 2014, side by side, they paid a joint tribute to Henry.
They said he was “a very special friend to us, with whom we shared so many happy childhood memories.”
At a private carol service in 2018, Harry gave a speech and Meghan, whom he had married that spring, gave a reading.
In December 2022, despite being estranged, the princes signed a joint letter on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Enrique’s death.
Charlie and Thomas (above) attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in October 2018
Prince Harry with Henry’s brother Charlie Van Straubenzee and Guy Pelly at the England v Australia match in 2015
Prince William with his best friend Thomas van Straubenzee at the polo in 2014. He acted as an usher alongside James Meade at Prince William’s wedding in 2011 and shared the toast at the reception.
Prince William with Thomas van Straubenzee at the Cheltenham Festival in 2013
Daisy Jenks and Charlie van Straubenzee leave St Mary the Virgin Church after their wedding, attended by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018
The siblings wrote about “the Van family we all love and adore”, describing what Claire and Alex have achieved with the foundation as “nothing short of extraordinary”.
They added: “Henry’s legacy will live on through the incredible achievements of what his mom and dad have accomplished over the years.”
“For those of us who knew Henners, we will always miss his mischievous charm and fun sense of humor.”
The van Straubenzees’ last visit to Uganda in February was “tinged with sadness”, Alex told the Sunday Times.
“There is no doubt that it has been the most rewarding way to overcome our pain,” he added.
‘Henry was a live wire. He was the axis of the family. As the middle child, he got along great with Thomas and Charlie. Losing him crushed them.
The Van Straubenzes have often been described as a second family to William and Harry, and Claire and Alex provided a refuge for the royal siblings during the “Welsh War” – Charles and Diana’s very public and painful divorce.
The ties between the two families go back decades: Princess Diana was briefly a nanny to Thomas van Straubenzee’s cousin and was also a close friend of his uncle, Willie.
Van Straubenzee and Harry and William’s sons were born six years apart and the princes joined the ‘vans’ on holiday in Cornwall each summer.
Thomas and Charlie are still close to both princes and were ushers at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding in 2018, where Charlie gave a speech at the reception.
Lucy Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Thomas van Straubenzee attend the Sunday service at St Mary Magdalene Church on Sandringham Estate in 2020. Thomas is Princess Charlotte’s godfather
Harry is godfather to Charlie’s four-year-old daughter Clover, and Charlie is godfather to Prince Archie, who recently turned five.
And the old friends’ bond has not been affected by Harry’s move to Montecito, where they were seen riding bikes through the Californian neighborhood in May 2022.
Meanwhile, Thomas is often described as the Prince of Wales’s best friend.
In Spare, Prince Harry detailed how Thomas acted as William’s real best man at his wedding to Kate in 2011, giving the traditional speech with James Meade.
Thomas is also godfather to Princess Charlotte and William is godfather to his daughter Mary, whom he has with his second wife Lucy Lanigan-O’Keeffe.
Lucy is one of Princess Charlotte’s former teachers at Thomas’s in Battersea.
“Henry would have been surprised,” Claire said of the news that William would likely lead the investiture.