Look Back pauses this week to reflect on the tenth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997.

The Princess of Wales visited Southport a number of times during her 16 years in the royal spotlight.
One of the most memorable dates was June 11, 1992, when she officially opened Queenscourt Hospice. It was her first engagement following revelations about her personal life, and just five days before the publication of Andrew Morton’s controversial book ‘Diana: A True Story’.

Images of her breaking down during chairman Bill Davidson’s moving speech were beamed across the globe.

Queenscourt volunteer Barbara Wall is a keen photographer and shared some of her precious pictures with the Visiter.

Barbara, from High Park Road, said: “She was lovely, absolutely gorgeous, she stopped to talk to everybody. She was a lady who was easy to like, even though she wasn’t able to stay with us on the day for long.”

Diana also came to the resort in September 1990 to visit Paduan House, the school for young people with special needs, when she also took a trolley for a spin around Tesco in Kew.
A year earlier the Princess visited Birkdale School for Hearing Impaired Children, and was shown around by principal Eileen Tomkinson, as well as receiving flowers from pupil Katie Foden, then aged eight.

Eve Calvert was an invited guest at the school on the day.
She remembered: “I was asked to come by Mrs Rothwell, one of the teachers, and we waited in the gym for the princess to arrive.
“She was late, as there were patients from the home next door who were on seats inside the school gates waiting to see her. She stopped the car and went to say hello to them all.
“The princess spent a lot of time with the children at the school as well, kneeling to speak to them. I thought she was a lovely woman and I have very fond memories of her.”

When the Princess was killed, along with friend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul, in a road tunnel in Paris, the groundswell of grief was overwhelming - and took many forms.
Iris Whitaker of Ainsdale was doing her regular charity work at the time of the Princess’ death.
She remembers: “We were fundraising for the charity and with so many words of remembrance being said about Diana, we decided to put them all together in a booklet.
“We compiled poetry that had been submitted to the Southport Visiter, the Liverpool Echo and Radio Merseyside into one volume.
“One of the radio presenters said they had so many poems they didn’t know what to do with them, so I said I’d have them. Five hundred copies were printed free of charge and they were sold for about £2 each.”

Just five days after the crash, the Southport Visiter printed plans for proposed gardens in front of the Town Hall and called for them to be dedicated to the Princess’ memory.
Then editor John Dempsey recalls: “Southport mourned Diana like the rest of the country, but her visit to Queenscourt Hospice was still fresh in many people's minds, and her death was felt keenly.
“As editor of the Visiter at the time, I remember our newsroom being inundated with tributes, not just from leading figures in the town, but from hundreds of readers feeling the loss of their ‘people's princess’.
“As Diana had visited the resort on several occasions, we had a large archive of pictures taken by Visiter photographers to draw on to create a unique tribute to her in print.
“But the Visiter wanted to do more than just report the town's grief, so we approached Sefton Council with a proposal to name the centrepiece of the newly renovated Lord Street Gardens as The Princess Diana Fountain.
“The council readily agreed, and of course, the feature is still there today.”

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