The Princess of Wales was reunited with her former history teacher for the first time in 25 years.
The pair hugged and chatted in heartwarming scenes in front of crowds in the harbour town of Falmouth, with the mother-of-three telling her old teacher: ‘The things you taught me, I now teach to my children.’
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Mr. Embury was full of praise for the royal – who was on her first official joint visit to the county with Prince William since inheriting the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall title.
But Canadian Mr Embury, who has a British wife, isn’t the only former teacher of Kate’s to reunite with the royal following her school days; in February 2020, the princess met two of her St Andrew’s prep school teachers while on a visit to South Wales.
Kevin Allford and Denise Evans-Allford, who taught Kate, Pippa and James Middleton at the school in Pangbourne, Berkshire, travelled from their home in Carmarthenshire in the hope of seeing their former pupil on her visit to Mumbles.
The princess exclaimed ‘it’s such a small world’ after seeing her old teachers outside an ice cream parlour, where Kate and William met local families.
Mr Allford, who remembers the Duchess of Cambridge as part of a ‘wonderful class of girls’, said: ‘It was wonderful she gave us so much time. She said it’s such a small world, and she hadn’t expected to see her ex-teachers in Swansea.
‘We saw her last when she and Pippa came back to school to visit James, she was 14. We haven’t seen her since then. Obviously, we’ve been following her career. She was in a wonderful class of girls and they got on so well together.’
Mr Alford said he enjoyed teaching Kate and the other pupils in her class so much that he asked to do so for an extra year. Both teachers said how much Kate had liked her time at the prep school.
‘She loved it so much,’ said Mrs Evans-Alford, who taught PE. ‘We had such a fantastic time there. She was in my netball team and rounders team. She was wonderful. She hasn’t changed a bit at all, you can tell. Pippa and James were wonderful too.’
The princess, went on to study at Downe House and Marlborough College. appeared equally thrilled by the reunion and smiled broadly as she spoke to the teachers.
She told the couple: ‘I want to instill in my children the life I had at St Andrew’s.’
Mr Alford later added, via 9Honey: ‘[Kate] was a hard worker and very conscientious. Obviously, she was the same in sports. She was a tremendous athlete and swimmer. I used to be in charge of swimming and she was very, very good, as her sister was.’
