THE Commonwealth Games that came to an end in Edinburgh in July 1970 were voted the best yet, by athletes, spectators and officials. They had been opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on the sixteenth of the month; the closing ceremony at Meadowbank was attended by the Queen and Princess Anne.

The upbeat approach to the entire event was summed up by one joyous Kenyan athlete, who declared: “We have been living like lords for 10 days”.

The Queen and her daughter watched as Scots runners Ian Stewart and Ian McCafferty came first and second in the 5000 metres. At the closing ceremony, they were amused by the spectacle before them – athletes abandoning the traditional march-past to dance around the track, stage impromptu wheelbarrow races and throw flowers into the crowd.

Afterwards, the Queen and the princess were driven around the track as the spectators sang, ‘Will ye’ no come back again?’

One year later Anne was back in Scotland, at the opening of the £9 million Erskine road bridge over the Clyde.

“There was a background of reports and rumours of the bomb-hoax type”, reported the Glasgow Herald, “but if the Princess knew about them, she did not show the slightest hint.

“She stood in an open Land Rover during the journey across the bridge and back by the ferry, waving and smiling to spectators”.

That same year, 1971, Anne, still only 21, became the first royal to be named Sports Personality of the Year, having won the individual title at the European Eventing Championship at Burghley.

Anne – the Princess Royal – turns 70 in August, and Vanity Fair magazine marks the occasion in its latest issue by putting her on the cover, under the strapline, ‘Royal rebel’.

Inside, the article notes that though her 500-plus annual engagements are rarely covered by the press, she was, until her brother Charles eclipsed her by 15 engagements last year, Britain’s most industrial royal. She represents some 300 charities and military organisations on a daily basis.

It has often been observed that Anne inherited her father’s “famously sharp tongue and waspish wit”, as Vanity Fair describes it – she once told photographers to “naff off” when they got under her feet – yet “she is not, despite what is often said about her, standoffish and cold”.

The Princess Royal is involved with many Scottish organisations, including the Scottish Rugby Union, of which she has served as Patron for many years. She sent both her children, Peter and Zara, to Gordonstoun, in Elgin, where her father and brother had both been boarders.

In the article, incidentally she mentions her admiration for the lighthouses built in Scotland by Robert Stevenson. “How [he] built those lighthouses is just phenomenal".

Read more: Herald Diary