Princess Anne's husband Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence pulls out of royal tour last minute

Princess Anne is preparing for a two-day visit to South Africa, but she will be travelling solo as her husband, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, is recovering from a suspected torn ligament. 

The Princess Royal will visit Cape Town but is travelling by herself after Sir Tim was injured while working on her Gatcombe estate, it is understood.

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The former naval officer needs treatment in the UK and is unable to fly with the Princess, who will travel on a commercial flight and start the trip with a project close to her heart – horses supporting the disabled.

Anne will watch riders being put through their paces at the Cape Town-based organisation South African Riding for the Disabled Association.

During her trip, Anne will unveil a new memorial to commemorate more than 1,700 predominantly Black South Africans who died in World War I between 3 and 14 August 1914 and who have no known gravesite. The memorial has been named the Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial. 

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Anne, 74, will be unveiling the memorial in her capacity as President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a role she inherited from the late Queen's cousin, the Duke of Kent, upon his retirement in 2023. 

She will also visit the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, which keeps alive the memory and achievements of the former archbishop of Cape Town who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa. 

Anne, who last visited South Africa in 2012 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, will also visit the Royal Cape Yacht Club and the South African Astronomical Observatory. 

Last year, Sir Tim had suffered a minor injury. He had reportedly sustained the nasty injury in a gardening incident. According to The Telegraph, the "gardening incident involved some fencing at the weekend". 

Days after, Sir Tim was pictured sporting a black eye at the 200th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) at Westminster Abbey. The injury didn't go unnoticed at the ceremony, which was also attended by the Duke of Kent, the president of the RNLI.