Princess Anne starts first Thailand visit in nearly 40 years with a football match in Khlong Toei
Britain’s Princess Anne began her first visit to Thailand in almost four decades on Thursday, not with a state banquet, but with a game of football at a school in Khlong Toei.
The Princess Royal, 75, and her husband Sir Tim Laurence toured classrooms and met pupils at Chumchon Moo Ban Pattana School, in the heart of Bangkok’s largest informal settlement. Save the Children and the Liverpool FC Foundation laid on football activities, with former Liverpool and England striker Emile Heskey playing alongside the children.
The choice of opening engagement was not accidental. Princess Anne has been patron and president of Save the Children UK for more than 50 years, and the charity’s work with children in Khlong Toei sits at the centre of that association.
It is her fourth visit to Thailand, and the first since 1987. She first came in February 1972 as a young woman, accompanying Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on their historic state visit, and returned on her own in 1979.
The Bangkok leg is the final stretch of a five-day Asia tour undertaken on behalf of King Charles. She spent three days in South Korea, marking 75 years since the Battle of Imjin River, the bloodiest engagement fought by the British Army since the Second World War, and laid a wreath at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan before meeting President Lee Jae-myung in Seoul.
Her Thai programme over two days includes an audience with King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida, paying respects to the late Queen Sirikit, and a meeting with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. She will also meet Thai women working in science, attend a regional health security showcase, and close the visit on Friday with an event on UK-Thailand cultural collaboration.
British Ambassador Mark Gooding said the visit reflects the enduring warmth between the two countries and the role both royal families continue to play in strengthening it. Britain and Thailand established diplomatic relations in 1855, making this a friendship of 171 years.
Princess Anne has carried out more than 20,000 official engagements since 1968 and remains patron of hundreds of organisations. With fewer working royals available, she has become the monarchy’s most reliable overseas representative, a reputation built on turning up rather than making headlines.
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