Prince Charles shares rare baby photo to celebrate Princess Anne on her birthday

Princess Anne has been inundated with well wishes on Twitter, as the Princess Royal marks her 71st birthday.

• Princess Anne turns 71 today.
• Among her many well wishes, Prince Charles delighted fans with a rare, intimate shot of the two as children.
• In other royal news, Meghan Markle’s wedding gown has been declared the most popular of the decade list.

However, one message, in particular, has caught the attention of fans of the Royal Family.

Prince Charles shared a touching photo from 1951, showing the Prince of Wales squeezing his younger sister’s hand while sitting in their prams in the Clarence House garden.

The Princess Royal, who is the Queen’s second child and only daughter, was born on August 15, 1950.

Princess Anne at 71: a look back at her accomplishments

Anne, the Princess Royal, has had an extraordinary life.

When not bravely staring down kidnapping attempts, she is known as one of the busiest working members of the Royal Family. Anne is involved in more than 300 charities, organisations and military regiments in the UK and overseas.

In 2020, despite the global Covid pandemic, the Princess Royal attended 148 official engagements. A year prior, in what one could consider ‘normal’ times, the Princess carried out 506 official engagements.

Not only does she continue to give back to charities and organisations, but Anne was the first British royal to compete in the Olympics.

She took on the equestrian three-day event in Montreal’s 1976 Games. The Princess also competed in multiple European Three-Day Event Championships, winning a gold medal in the 1971 individual discipline and silver in both the individual and team disciplines in 1975.

Anne’s daughter, Zara Phillips, followed in her mother's footsteps by competing in the same equestrian three-day event at the 2012 London Olympics.

Princess Anne now sits as the Honorary President of the British Olympic Association and was involved in London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

She formally accepted the Olympic flame in Athens on behalf of London and brought it back to Britain for its 8000-mile relay tour of the country.