She has official connections to the armed forces, as well as an emotional closeness due to the military service of her war hero late father Major Bruce Shand, who died aged 89 in June 2006.

Her father, Bruce Shand, was taken as a prisoner of war in Germany - and earned a Military Cross for valour. Major Shand, who died in June 2006, was commissioned into the 12th Royal Lancers in ...