Princess Anne is STILL the ‘hardest working royal’: King’s sister props up slimmed-down monarchy by attending 25 per cent of all royal engagements so far this year – as she recovers from concussion in hospital

Princess Anne was responsible for a quarter of all royal engagements in the first six months of the year, according to a new analysis from MailOnline.

The Princess Royal’s recovery from a head injury believed to have been caused by a horse at the weekend now means Britain’s busiest royal will be forced to sit out.

There will also be another dip in the family’s number of official duties in a year when both the King and Princess of Wales have undergone cancer treatment.

Anne, 73, is expected to have at least the rest of this week off and has postponed a planned official visit to Canada due to a concussion and head injury.

It is believed she was injured by a horse’s leg or head while walking around her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire on Sunday evening.

The King’s sister is said to have spent a second night in Bristol’s Southmead Hospital after apparently suffering memory loss as a result of the incident.

In May, MailOnline revealed how Anne had kept the show on the road for the House of Windsor for the first third of the year.

At that stage she was responsible for one in three of all assignments among the eleven working members of the family who took on official duties at the taxpayer’s expense.

That percentage has dropped slightly since the king and Prince William resumed their public duties, with him taking time off to care for his wife and children when Kate underwent abdominal surgery in January.

But Anne is still far ahead of any other family member and is one of only four members of the royal family to have completed more than 100 engagements this year.

So far, she has completed 252 assignments, accounting for 26 percent of the family’s total. The next busiest is Prince Edward at 143, then the King at 121, followed by Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, at 118.

What is also clear is that Anne, more than anyone else, is the royal woman who travels beyond the palaces to travel the country and meet the public.

The king, who has had to be careful not to compromise his immune system, has undertaken only 19 percent of his engagements outside the royal residences, while 84 percent of Anne’s have been outside the palaces.

Patricia Treble, who compiled the detailed analysis for Mail Online, said of Anne: ‘Her overall pace for the first six months of the year has not slowed compared to 2023.

‘In the first six months of 2023 she completed 255 assignments; so far in 2024 she has done 252.

“Given that only four royals have completed more than 100 engagements so far this year, her absence from the Court Circular will soon appear in the records.

‘This year her contribution has been greater than normal as the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales have taken on far fewer engagements than normal.

‘As a result, The Princess Royal’s share of the total royal workload in 2024 is seven percentage points higher than her share in 2023 (19 percent).’

As of June 23, the royal family had taken on 952 commissions, as recorded in the Court Circular.

But they reached that number of engagements on May 21 last year, so they are a month behind.

May – normally one of the peak periods in the calendar for the monarchy – was by far the busiest month of the year for the royal family.

This is despite numerous appointments having to be canceled due to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision on May 22 to call a general election for July 4.

This year, the royals made 271 engagements in May, almost matching the 294 they made in 2023.

The total is also much higher than the monthly average of 136 for the rest of 2024.

In the meantime, the king has slowly increased his workload. But his 121 count on June 23 is still only half of the 242 he did in the first six months of 2023.

In the first quarter of the year, Charles III carried out an average of twelve assignments per month. In April he did 16. In May he did 51 – 38, of which audiences or meetings etc.. Until June 23 he did 21.

Yesterday Anne was visited in hospital by her daughter Zara Tindall.

The Olympic rider and her brother, Peter Phillips, were at the estate when Anne was injured, but it is not known who raised the alarm.

Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence visited the hospital for lunch earlier in the day and said the Princess was ‘doing well’. As he left the entrance, Anne’s husband said, “She’s doing well, slowly but surely.”

It was the first update on Anne’s condition since Monday, when Buckingham Palace said she had suffered minor head injuries and concussion.

When asked if he had brought anything for the princess, Sir Tim replied: ‘Just a few little treats from home.’

He was wearing an open-collared shirt and a blazer, and was carrying what appeared to be a blue cooler bag.

It is believed that Anne, an accomplished rider who competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, was kicked by a horse while walking on her Gatcombe Park estate on Sunday.

Emergency services and an air ambulance attended and she was treated at the scene in Gloucestershire.

The princess was taken by car to Southmead Hospital for tests, treatment and observation. She was accompanied by Sir Tim, her second husband, whom she married in 1992.

On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer sent her their best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Monday: ‘The Princess Royal suffered minor injuries and concussion following an incident at the Gatcombe Park estate last night.

‘Her Royal Highness remains in Southmead Hospital, Bristol, as a precautionary measure for observation and is expected to make a full and speedy recovery.

“The King has been kept closely informed and joins the entire Royal Family in sending his dearest love and good wishes to the Princess for a speedy recovery.”

While the cause of the injuries has not been confirmed, Anne’s medical team has said her head injuries are consistent with possible impact with a horse’s head or legs.

It is believed the princess was walking within the protected area of ​​Gatcombe Park when the incident occurred. It is believed no other people were involved.