Anne was born during the reign of her maternal grandfather, King George VI, at Clarence House on 15 August 1950 at 11:50 am, as the second child and only daughter of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. A 21-gun salute in Hyde Park signalled the birth. Anne was baptised in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace on 21 October 1950, by Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett.

A governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed to look after Anne and was responsible for her early education at Buckingham Palace; Peebles also served as early governess for Anne’s older brother, Charles. After the death of George VI in February 1952, Anne’s mother ascended the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. Given her young age at the time, Anne did not attend the coronation in June 1953.

A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company to include the Holy Trinity Brompton Brownie pack, was re-formed in May 1959, specifically so that, as her mother and aunt had done as children, Anne could socialise with girls her own age. The company was active until 1963, when Anne went to boarding school. Anne enrolled at Benenden School in 1963. In 1968, she left school with six GCE O-Levels and two A-Levels.

Anne first met her future husband Mark Phillips in 1968 at a party for equestrians and horse enthusiasts. Their engagement was announced on 29 May 1973. On 14 November 1973, Anne married Phillips, a lieutenant in the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards, at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that was televised around the world, with an estimated audience of 100 million. Following the wedding, Anne and her husband lived at Gatcombe Park. He was made acting captain by the start of 1974 when he was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II.

In the next couple of years, Anne started dating. In 1970, her first boyfriend was Andrew Parker Bowles, who later married Camilla Shand (Shand much later married Anne’s brother, Prince Charles, as his second wife.)

Anne travels abroad on behalf of the United Kingdom up to three times a year. She began to undertake overseas visits upon leaving secondary school, and accompanied her parents on a state visit to Austria in the same year. Her first tour of Australia was with her parents in 1970, since which she has returned on numerous occasions to undertake official engagements as a colonel-in-chief of an Australian regiment, or to attend memorials and services, such as the National Memorial Service for victims of the Black Saturday bushfires in Melbourne, Australia, on 22 February 2009. In 1990 she was the first member of the royal family to make an official visit to the Soviet Union when she went there as a guest of President Mikhail Gorbachev and his government.

At the age of 21, Anne won the individual title at the European Eventing Championship, and was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971. For more than five years, she also competed with the British eventing team, winning a silver medal in both individual and team disciplines in the 1975 European Eventing Championship, riding the home-bred Doublet. The following year, Anne participated in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal as a member of the British team, riding the Queen’s horse, Goodwill, in Eventing.

As Princess Anne and Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace on 20 March 1974, from a charity event on Pall Mall, their Princess IV car was forced to stop on the Mall by a Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball, jumped out and began firing a pistol. Inspector James Beaton, Anne’s personal police officer, responded by exiting the car in order to shield her and to attempt to disarm Ball. However, Beaton’s firearm, a Walther PPK, jammed, and he was shot by the assailant, as was Anne’s chauffeur, Alex Callender, when he tried to disarm Ball. Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist, also intervened, and was shot in the chest. Ball approached Anne’s car and told her that he intended to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, the sum given by varying sources as £2 million or £3 million, which he claimed he intended to give to the National Health Service. Ball told Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied: “Not bloody likely!”, and reportedly briefly considered hitting Ball.

Following the retirement of the Queen Mother in 1981, Anne was elected by graduates of the University of London as that institution’s Chancellor. Throughout May 1996, Anne served as Her Majesty’s High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and held the post again in 2017. In 2007, she had the honour of being appointed by the Queen as Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order, a position her grandmother had also held.

Anne visited Beaton in hospital and thanked him for his assistance. In 1984, the princess spoke about the event on Parkinson saying she was ‘scrupulously polite’ to her would-be kidnapper as she thought it would be ‘silly to be too rude at that stage’.

Anne assumed the Presidency of the Fédération Équestre Internationale from 1986 until 1994. On 5 February 1987, she became the first member of the royal family to appear as a contestant on a television quiz-show when she competed on the BBC panel game A Question of Sport.

On 31 August 1989, Anne and Phillips announced their intention to separate, as the marriage had been under strain for a number of years. The couple had been rarely seen in public together, and both were romantically linked with other people. They continued to share the custody of their children, and initially announced that “there were no plans for divorce.” They eventually divorced on 23 April 1992. Anne and Phillips have four grandchildren.

Anne met Timothy Laurence while he was serving on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Their relationship developed in early 1989, three years after he was appointed as an equerry to the Queen. In 1989, the existence of private letters from Laurence to the Princess was revealed by The Sun newspaper.

Anne is involved with over 200 charities and organisations in an official capacity. She works extensively for Save the Children, of which she has been president since 1970, and she initiated The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in 1991; her work for the charity takes her all over the world, including many poverty stricken African nations. Anne is the patron of Transaid, a charity founded by Save the Children and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport which aims to provide safe and sustainable transport in developing countries. She is also the Royal Patron of WISE, an organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in science, engineering and construction. Her extensive work for St. John Ambulance as Commandant-in-Chief of St. John Ambulance Cadets has helped to develop many young people, as she annually attends the Grand Prior Award Reception. She is Patron of St. Andrew’s First Aid. She is a British representative in the International Olympic Committee as an administrator, and was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. She was President of BAFTA from 1973 to 2001. She maintains a relationship with student sport and is the Patron of British Universities and Colleges Sport. She has been Patron of the Royal National Children’s Foundation since 2002 and the industrial heritage museum, Aerospace Bristol, since 2016. In 1986 she was appointed Master of the Worshipful Company of Carmen.

Anne married Laurence, then a Commander in the Royal Navy, at Crathie Kirk, where the royal family worship when staying at Balmoral Castle, on 12 December 1992. Approximately 30 guests were invited for the private marriage service. The Church of England did not at that time allow divorced persons whose former spouses were still living to remarry in its churches.

She was elected Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh effective 31 March 2011, succeeding her father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who stepped down from the role in 2010.

Likewise, she accepted in 2011 the roles of President of City and Guilds of London Institute, Master of the Corporation of Trinity House and President of the Royal Society of Arts, also in succession to her father. She is also Patron of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Edinburgh University’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, International Students House, London, Acid Survivors Trust International, Townswomen’s Guilds and Citizens Advice.

Since 2013, the Princess Royal has a personal heraldic flag for use in Canada. It is the Royal Arms of Canada in banner form defaced with a blue roundel surrounded by a wreath of gold maple leaves, within which is a depiction of an “A” surmounted by a coronet. Above the roundel is a white label of three points, the centre one charged with a red heart and the other two with red crosses.

In February 2015, the Princess Royal became one of the first female honorary members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

She represented Great Britain in the International Olympic Committee at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. In August 2016, she returned to the country to visit the Russian city of Arkhangelsk for the 75th anniversary of Operation Dervish, which was one of the first Arctic convoys of World War II. In September 2016, the Princess suffered from chest infection and was required to cancel official engagements. In late October 2016, she visited the Malaysian state of Sarawak for a two-day study tour. In 2017, she became Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and a Governor of Gresham’s School.

Anne undertakes a number of duties and engagements on behalf of her mother, in support of her role as sovereign of the Commonwealth realms. Kevin S. MacLeod, the Canadian Secretary to the Queen, said of Anne in 2014: “Her credo is, ‘Keep me busy. I’m here to work. I’m here to do good things. I’m here to meet as many people as possible’.” It was revealed in December 2017 that the Princess Royal had undertaken the most official engagements that year out of all the royal family, her mother included.