On Wednesday, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, attended an important royal engagement in London, but she made some time to have fun on an iconic British streetscape. On her way to the Abbey Road Studios for an event, she stopped by the crosswalk where the Beatles shot the cover for their 1969 album Abbey Road. Wearing a scarlet dress by Beulah London, she emulated John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr by taking a few long steps as she crossed the street. Unlike the cover, however, she turned to the camera and flashed a smile.
Following the photo op, she attended the second annual Orbis Visionaries Reception, representing the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Sophie has been involved with charities related to blindness since her early days in the royal family, and has been the agency’s global representative since 2003. Though she has a personal connection with the issue—Sophie’s daughter Lady Louise Windsor was born with esotropia, which has since been surgically corrected—she first began working with charities for the visually impaired before Louise was diagnosed with the condition.
During the event, Sophie spoke about a 2022 trip to Ethiopia she took in association with Orbis, an international charity that fights avoidable blindness in developing countries. While in Ethiopia, Sophie was able to see the results of a 2012 fundraising drive she undertook with Queen Elizabeth for that year’s Diamond Jubilee. That money helped the country eradicate trachoma, an infectious disease that causes blindness.
“To be out in the field and to see what Orbis are doing on the ground—delivering services that are truly life-changing for people, many of whom have been suffering for years, to give them their lives back—is absolutely amazing. I had the chance to stand in on an operation to correct the eyelids.” she said during her address. “It is amazing how, in the space of minutes, somebody’s life is transformed. It’s not right that there are so many people out there living with these conditions, whether it be blinding trachoma or whether it be from cataracts.”
As family members Kate Middleton and King Charles III take extended breaks from royal duties after their cancer diagnoses, their royal duties have been taken up by the rest of the family’s working members. Sophie has been one of the busiest royals, joining her husband Prince Edward and Princess Anne in carrying out duties across the UK.