Royal-watchers will know that Sandringham is the Norfolk estate where the British royal family traditionally congregate at Christmas. The area was mentioned in the 11th-century Domesday Book and came into royal hands in 1862, when Queen Victoria bought it for her eldest son, Albert Edward, in the hopes that marriage and a move to the country would be a calming influence on her sociable son.
As befitting a royal establishment which used to exist in its own time zone – "Sandringham Time", for which clocks were set half an hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time to allow for more evening light for winter hunting – the estate is immersed in traditions, some dating back centuries, some more modern.
The film Spencer, which recently arrived in cinemas and focuses on three days Princess Diana spent at Sandringham over Christmas, shines a light on many royal rituals, leaving audiences wondering which parts of the film are real and which parts are fantasy.
“The great thing about the truth and reality is it’s always so weird and bonkers, and much more outlandish than anything you create,” Spencer screenwriter Steven Knight told Vanity Fair. “So, everything in the movie that seems unbelievable is true... I spoke to people who served and observed. And I got actual events, things that happened, stepping stones, which you could use to create the drama.”
While we can be pretty sure Diana didn’t rip off her pearl necklace into her soup and then start eating the pearls as depicted by Kristen Stewart in the movie, one scene in particular has got audiences talking: the annual Windsor family weigh in.
We delve into the secrets behind what a royal Christmas looks like at Sandringham (Covid restrictions notwithstanding)…
The queen really does weigh her guests
The tradition of weighing guests at the start of the three-day festivities dates back to the reign of Edward VII, who was king from 1901 to 1910. Edward decided that weight gain during their stay was indicative of how much his guests had enjoyed themselves.
Guests were weighed at the start and end of their visit, with 1.4 kilograms the preferred amount for them to have put on, and it's a tradition Queen Elizabeth II has carried on.
Arrivals and a strict 72-hour schedule
Sandringham festivities are timed to last for 72 hours, from Christmas Eve until Boxing Day. As for who arrives first, the queen heads to the country estate a few days before her family, with junior royals arriving early on Christmas Eve, followed by more senior royals.
The family sits down to lunch on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day starts with the family attending the service at the 16th-century St Mary Magdalene Church on the estate.
Cheap, novelty gifts only
Adhering to German traditions, the royal family exchange gifts after afternoon tea on Christmas Eve. Presents are laid out on a table in the Red Drawing Room, with expensive offerings frowned upon.
As the preference is for joke and prank gifts, The Mirror reports that Kate Middleton gave Prince Harry a novelty “Grow Your Own Girlfriend” kit, before he started dating Meghan Markle; Princess Anne gifted Prince Charles a leather toilet seat; Diana gave Sarah Ferguson a leopard print bath mat; and Prince William once gave Queen Elizabeth II a pair of slippers with her face on them.
“Meghan’s biggest challenge was finding the perfect novelty gifts to amuse her new extended family,” Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote in Finding Freedom of Markle’s 2017 Christmas on the estate. “At least one of her gifts was a huge hit – a spoon for William that had ‘cereal killer’ embossed on the shallow bowl end of the utensil.”
Several outfit changes a day
Food and fashion go hand in hand at Sandringham, with many rules and traditions governing when and how meals should be eaten, and what should be worn at breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea. There are black-tie dinners on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with the queen overseeing a seating plan, which decrees that couples are not allowed to sit beside one another.
“You get up in one thing, then you have to change for church,” Princess Diana’s former royal butler Paul Burrell revealed in Channel 4’s A Very Royal Christmas: Sandringham Secrets. "You might change for lunch. You might then change to go for a walk in the afternoon. And then you will change for dinner."
Christmas Day dinner is served after the visit to the church and the recording of Queen Elizabeth II's annual message. Dinner is black-tie for men and full-length gowns, tiaras and jewels for women. The queen’s outfit dictates what all other guests should wear.
“Once Her Majesty has chosen her dress for dinner, a handwritten notice is pinned up in the Dressers’ Corridor detailing what she will be wearing, so that the Queen’s ladies’ maids can select an appropriate dress for the lady they are looking after,” Queen Elizabeth’s dresser, Angela Kelly, wrote in her book The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe.
“It can be quite exhausting,” royal expert Richard Kay said in A Very Royal Christmas: Sandringham Secrets. “It was one of the unbending rituals that both Princess Diana and the Duchess of York found quite hard to adjust to.”
Dinner table etiquette
When it comes to dining, there are plenty of unwritten rules only regulars to the estate would be au fait with.
According to A Very Royal Christmas: Sandringham Secrets, salt and pepper should be sprinkled on to the plate and not over the food, while drinks glasses should be held by the stem, not the bowl. When the queen finishes her meal and puts her fork and knife down, that’s the cue for all guests to finish too.
Former Sandringham chef Darren McGrady, author of Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen, has also revealed what the Windsors eat during the festive period.
“Turkey, different stuffings – sage and onion, chestnut – and the traditional sides like roast potatoes, mash potatoes, parsnips and Brussels sprouts," McGrady told Hello! Online. “The pudding was made in pudding basins, turned out, decorated in holly… and then the palace steward would carry it, flaming, into the royal dining room.”
He added: “Not long after they’d go in for afternoon tea. It was always the chocolate Yule log, which was a twist on the chocolate birthday cake, scones, mince pies, different types of sandwiches and the Christmas cake.”
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
The biog
Age: 35
Inspiration: Wife and kids
Favourite book: Changes all the time but my new favourite is Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Best Travel Destination: Bora Bora , French Polynesia
Favourite run: Jabel Hafeet, I also enjoy running the 30km loop in Al Wathba cycling track
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
