Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence surprised royal onlookers when he appeared at a charity event this week, sporting a horrific black eye.
The 69-year-old, who is married to Princess Anne, was among the guests at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s 200th anniversary on Monday evening.
Sir Tim, the vice president of the RNLI, had reportedly sustained the nasty injury in a gardening incident. According to The Telegraph, the “gardening incident involved some fencing at the weekend”.
The injury didn’t go unnoticed at the ceremony, which was also attended by the Duke of Kent, the president of the RNLI.
The event comes three days after Sir Tim marked his 69th birthday. His wife, the Princess Royal, was in Dubai on the day, attending the Seafarers Awareness and Orientation Day in Jebel Ali in her role as President of The Mission to Seafarers.
The royal couple have been married since 1992, with the pair having first met when the former Royal Navy officer served as an equerry to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Born in Camberwell, South London on 1 March 1955, Timothy James Hamilton Laurence is the youngest son of Commander Guy Stewart Laurence and Barbara Alison Laurence.
He was educated at the New Beacon Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School in Kent, before obtaining a Geography degree from Durham University on a Naval scholarship.
Sir Tim completed his training at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, joining the Royal Navy in 1973 and was later promoted to lieutenant in 1977.
Anne divorced her first husband Captain Mark Phillips on 13 April 1992. The former couple share two children – Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall. The Princess married Sir Tim at Crathie Kirk in Scotland on 12 December 1992, with around 30 guests in attendance at the intimate wedding.
