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Princess Diana (1961-1997), Princess of Wales from 1981 to 1997. Diana was born Diana Frances Spencer in Sandringham, Norfolk, England. Her father, Edward Spencer, was heir to an earldom, and her mother was the daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy. Diana was educated at Riddlesworth Hall, a preparatory school in Norfolk, and later at the West Heath School in Kent. She attended finishing school in Switzerland at Chateaux d'Oex at Montreux. From 1979 until 1981 Diana worked as a kindergarten teacher at the exclusive Young England School in Pimlico, London.

On February 24, 1981, her engagement to Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth II and the heir to the British throne were announced. They were married in Saint Paul’s Cathedral in an internationally televised ceremony on July 29, 1981, with an audience numbering in the hundreds of millions. Diana was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the British throne in more than 300 years. The couple had two sons: Prince William Arthur Philip Lou is (born June 21, 1982) and Prince Henry Charles Albert David (popularly called Harry, born September 15, 1984).

By the late 1980s, strains in the royal couple's marriage had been widely publicized, and in December 1992 a separation was announced. By that time Diana had adopted charity work as her royal duty. In 1993 she briefly withdrew from public activities in an effort to avoid the negative publicity focused on her separation from Prince Charles. Formal divorce proceedings began in early 1996, and in August 1996 Diana and Charles were legally divorced. After the divorce it was agreed that Diana would be known as Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, and would no longer be permitted to use the title Her Royal Highness. The couple had joint custody of their children.

Diana actively supported many charities related to homeless and deprived children, drug abuse, breast cancer, and victims of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In 1987 Diana sat with a man dying from AIDS and shook his hand, a gesture credited with promoting acceptance and compassion for people with the disease. She was the vice president of the British Red Cross and served as a member of the International Red Cross advisory board. In 1997 Diana visited Angola and Bosnia and Herzegovina in support of a Red Cross campaign to ban landmines.