A close confidant of the Prince of Wales, Hugh van Cutsem died yesterday at the age of 72. The former officer in the Household Cavalry also happened to occupy the country residence, now tipped to be for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Anmer Hall – on The Queen’s Sandringham Estate, Norfolk.
Van Cutsem was a good friend of Prince Charles when he was at Cambridge, becoming a ‘regular holiday and shooting companion’, according to the Telegraph. He also shared the Prince’s passions for rural life, field sports and conservation.
The van Cutsems’ son, Edward van Cutsem was one of Prince Charles’s two pageboys at his 1981 wedding to the then Lady Diana Spencer. Later, Princes William and Harry became close to the van Cutsems over time as well.
The Prince of Wales was also helped through some of the more difficult aspects of his marriage by van Cutsem who helped him by writing to The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh about Prince Charles’s issues, allegedly allerting them to the Prince’s problems.
Hugh van Cutsem’s children have also, in turn, become friends to the Prince of Wales’s children and were guests at the 2011 Royal Wedding of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Grace van Cutsem, then aged 3 was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding along with Eliza Lopes, Lady Louise Windsor and Margarita Armstrong-Jones.
photo credit: United Nations Photo via photopin cc
