In July 2024, a young man with a knife attacked adults and children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England. Three children were killed and ten were injured. It devastated the community and the country. Taylor Swift met with some of the families and she gave them VIP tickets to her British concerts last year. King Charles visited Southport soon after the stabbings. Prince William and Kate eventually visited Southport, months later. Well, as it turns out, Will and Kate also donated to a new local playground being built in Southport.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have quietly made a donation to a primary school in Southport to help them fund a new playground in memory of the children killed in a knife attack last July. Prince William and Kate made the emotional pilgrimage to Liverpool last October to meet with the families of the three girls who lost their lives in the attack – in the princess’s first public engagement since completing chemotherapy for cancer.
Alice Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, were killed along with seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Teenage killer Axel Rudakubana was jailed for life for their deaths – alongside the attempted murder of eight other children – and was handed a minimum term of 52 years in January.
Alice’s parents have since been raising money to build a new playground at Churchtown Primary School, attended by Alice and Bebe. The new space is set to be honour the girls’ memories and provide an expanded space for children to play in.
The donation from the royals was revealed over the weekend by Jinnie Payne, headteacher of Churchtown Primary School. She wrote in a message shared on social media: ‘On behalf of Churchtown Primary School, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, for their incredibly generous donation to our Churchtown Playground fund. Their kindness and thoughtfulness mean so much to our whole community as we come together to honour the memories of Alice and Bebe, two much-loved members of our school family. As Alice’s dad Sergio, and I prepare to run the London Marathon today in their memory, we are deeply touched and encouraged by William’s and Kate’s support.’
At first, I thought this was going to be a repeat of the Sarah Everard situation, where Kate and her staff were exploiting a murdered woman for their own PR. But it’s not that – it seems the donation to the playground was genuine and the palace didn’t even brief the Mail about it, it was all Jinnie Payne talking about it. I’m not nitpicking, but I do wonder if the donation came from the Royal Foundation or the Waleses privately. I also wonder what “generous” means in British terms and royal terms. I’m just saying, I’m often astonished by how little money Will and Kate’s foundation actually “gives away.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
