Princess Diana visits Southall
Picture showing Kamlesh Virdi (in blue) and Naseem Ahmed in black
Date of Visit 31st August 1990
This is the story of the day Diana the Princess of Wales, visited Southall Middlesex, the story has been put together based on an interview with Kamlesh Virdi, who worked at the location at the time and was involved in organising the event along with other members of the team.
On the 31st August 1990 Diana the Princess of Wales visited the Southall Alcohol Advisory Service, she came to officially open the new centre at Featherstone Terrace in Southall.
Diana was the Patron of Turning Point, a charity which helped people with drink, drug, HIV and Aids problems, to turn their life around. Southall Alcohol Advisory Service was part of this charity and focused on Alcohol related issues. The new centre would be the focus in Southall to help with these issues.
Kamlesh was the administrator for the office and organised the event with other members of the team, at the time there was Sarita Rakhra a Counsellor, Ansa Khan a Counsellor and Naseem Ahmed the Manager. There were also other volunteers and helpers on the day.
“It took months of planning to organise the event, there was lots of advertising and promotion to raise awareness of the event. Children from the local Hamborough School were invited to attend on the day. It was quite hectic at the time. I was actually six months pregnant at the time so it was a lot of work”. Says Kamlesh.
Kamlesh organised decoration and the layout in advance, she also had to arrange catering with a local restaurant Omis. “A the time Mukesh the owner was really helpful and organised the food for the day” Says Kamlesh. “ I also had to organise cutlery and other catering equipment with Abba catering in Southall”.
“One of the most important tasks was organising a bouquet for Diana, but we had to choose who would present the bouquet to Diana, everyone wanted their children or local children from the school to present this. But in the end we decided a client’s daughter from the centre would be given the opportunity to present the bouquet”.
“On the day it was quite hectic in the morning, crowds were gathering early and as the message spread more people were arriving. Police arrived and checked everything in the building, they also walked around with sniffer dogs and checked everywhere. Once they approved everything, nobody was allowed in our out of the building”
“The children from the Local school started arriving and the crowd starting getting bigger, everyone was really excited, people were waving flags and all looking forward to seeing Diana”
“Diana arrived in a large car, she was wearing a lovely flowery dress, the crowds were cheering and waving their flags and taking pictures. The young girl presented the flowers to Diana, then Diana came inside and started meeting everyone.
Diana said hello and said everyone was doing a good job, she was shaking everyone hands and saying hello to everyone. We offered her some food and a drink, she asked for a glass of water, so we all rushed to get a glass of water and present it to her. She then sat around the table and talked to everyone. She wasn’t there very long and then she said bye to everyone and was escorted out fo the building by the police.
Once Diana left we invited everyone to share the food and we all started with the buffet, everyone enjoyed the food and talked about the event and how amazing and nice Diana was.
It was a great day and we were happy with the outcome. There was a lot of publicity after so it helped bring attention to our unit, so despite the hard work it was really worth it.
Contribute – We want to hear your stories of the day or see your photos. Contribute here.