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My journey photographing the Princess of Wales started in , when she visited Bovey Tracey, in south Devon. As well as official visits, there were holidays — notably Switzerland, Austria and Florida — never announced officially, but where being in the right place at the right time relied on a friendly word from a range of sources. On the night of the car crash the on-call Picture Editor rang me to explain that the Princess of Wales had been involved in a serious accident in Paris, no-one knew how she was although at least one person had died and two staff photographers were heading for France.

I headed to the office.

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There, in the pre-Twitter era, a handful of reporters, subs and news-editors were trying to determine just what had happened. We heard rumours that there were pictures of the Princess in the car after the accident. He knew what the announcement would be. Mike relayed what he had heard to the rest of the newsroom, which went silent.

But was it enough to run the story? In the following days, as the nation grieved, The Mall — just a few hundred yards away from the office — filled with people wanting to lay flowers and sign books of condolence and share with strangers their memory of a woman who had touched the lives of so many. It was a surreal experience, being so close to where a story was being reported around the world, but seeing it just through the films and digital images sent back to us from outside Buckingham Palace and elsewhere.