Research note: after Diana

Folklore, Annual, 1998 by Marion Bowman

Presumably, "Where were you when you heard the news about Diana?" will become a significant question in the future; it will become the catalyst for personal experience narratives, contemporary legends, examples of folk poetry and reminiscences and reflections about what changes (if any) her death set in motion. As a folklorist and scholar of contemporary religion, it seems important to me to put down descriptive markers which can be used as raw data in the future.

In particular, I see a value in recording what was happening at local level and at the personal, informal level unreported by the press. The extraordinary scenes in London have been thoroughly documented in the national and international media, but the great majority of people did not get to London, and there might be regional variations and innovations which we shall lose sight of if we do not record them now. This note briefly describes three aspects of the public reaction which I personally was witness to-first the scenes in the City of Bath where I live; secondly the response of some members of the pagan community whom I met during a conference which convened in the days immediately after Diana's death; and thirdly, a selection of the conspiracy theories that flourished in the wake of the accident, and which were confided to me.

Bath: Showing Respect

A recurring theme to emerge from the media and from personal communication was that people felt the need to "do something" to mark Diana's death. In Bath, some of the activity was similar to, if on a smaller scale than, what happened in London. On the Friday evening a memorial service at Bath Abbey was attended by 2,000 people and relayed to a further 1,000 outside. Flowers were piled up outside the Abbey and at Orange Grove in the centre of town. In the nearby village of Peasedown St John a beacon was lit on the Saturday evening after the funeral "as a mark of respect to Princess Diana."

Showing respect became of focal importance,(1) and people both fell back on older (half remembered?) traditions and also created their own symbols and ceremonies. In the week after Diana's death, a thin loop of black ribbon was used as a sign of mourning(2) drawing on established modern symbols such as the red ribbon loop used to commemorate AIDS deaths and the pink ribbon used to show support in breast cancer awareness week recently. Some in Bath, however, reverted to earlier mourning symbols, black armbands or a homemade inverted "V" flash of black material. There was considerable touchiness, too, about what was appropriate behaviour. Complaints were voiced, for example, when there was no picture of Diana beside the book of condolence in Bath's Guildhall, and when blue rather than black pens were provided.

It seemed obvious that the day of the funeral, Saturday 6 September, would be particularly significant in terms of showing respect. Although there was not an official moment of silence, the local paper, The Bath Chronicle, urged people to join in a minute's silence at the end of the funeral service at Westminster Abbey. I went into Bath city centre between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to see what, if anything, was happening. The streets were almost deserted, pavements in the centre of town were empty and so were normally busy roads. The flag on Guildhall was flying at half mast, as-somewhat absurdly-were the five international flags on rather short poles over the doorway of a Bath hotel. A bus at the bus station had a picture of Diana against a black background displayed in the front window below the steering wheel.

Many businesses and tourist attractions were closed until 2:00 p.m., although this was not absolutely standard. The ubiquity of the custom of closing shops as a mark of respect allowed Private Eye's cartoonist to satirise modern values. The cartoon showed two pictures of the same shop, the left-hand one with a sign in the window which read "Closed out of respect for Princess Diana," the right-hand one bearing the sign "Good Friday-Open as Usual" (September 1997). At the Guildhall Market, there was a notice at the entrance, on a white word-processed sheet of paper, heavily edged in black: "In Memoriam of Diana Princess of Wales the Guildhall Market will be observing a two minute silence at 11 am on Saturday 5th [sic] September 1997." When I entered the market at around 11:20 a.m., I found there were no other customers and most of the stallholders were gathered round a television on the counter of the butcher's stall watching the funeral. The bread stall had a number of night-lights burning on its shelves. On the door of a local hairdresser was a sign, handwritten in capital letters: "DUE TO `WEDDING BOOKINGS'! WE SHALL BE OPEN `TODAY' A.M.--IN RESPECT OF DIANA `PRINCESS OF WALES'--WE SHALL HAVE ONE MINUTE'S SILENCE @ 11.45! THE CLOSING SIGN WILL BE PUT UP AT THIS TIME." In the window there was a small formal flower arrangement, with a card indicating that the flowers had been paid for by the staff as a mark of respect for Diana. A rather trendy bar and cafe had written on its blackboard in yellow, blue, pink and white chalk: