Prince Charles is 'hardest-working Royal'

LONDON: Prince Charles, Britain's king- in-waiting, has pipped his sister Princess Anne to become the "hardest-working" Royal, a new survey has revealed.
 
According to the survey, the Prince of Wales carried out more official engagements in 2008 than any other senior Royal. And, with 560 engagements during the year, he overtook Princess Anne, for the first time in years.
 
The Princess Royal, who has regularly topped a table for the number of engagements, attended 534 this year.
 
However, she carried out almost twice as many official visits opening ceremonies and other time-consuming engagements as her brother -- 299 as compared to 166. The Prince carried out more audiences, meetings and investitures.
 
"The Prince of Wales does a huge amount of meetings and audiences while the Princess Royal spends a lot of time out and about. She is incredible -- she really gets down to it. And she is obviously very good at it," Tim O'Donovan, who complied the figures for The Times, told the newspaper.
 
The Queen allowed only a slight reduction in her number of engagements, from 440 to 417. At 82, more than 20 years after most women would have retired, she continues to work full-time, allowing herself only Christmas Day and Easter Day as full days off.
 
The Duke of Edinburgh, who is 87, carried out 354 engagements, while Prince William carried out 24 engagements and Prince Harry 17, the survey has found.
 
"They are amazing. But they pace themselves, and it is something they have been doing for umpteen years. And they don't have to worry about getting home and cooking the dinner, like you or I," O'Donovan said.