Kate Middleton has been on numerous official engagements over the years since becoming a royal in 2011. But her trip on Thursday with Prince William feels like a special throwback to her first-ever event while the couple were still engaged. The Prince and Princess of Wales are visiting the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Tower Lifeboat Station in London to meet staff and volunteers who help save lives on the River Thames. The occasion also marks the 25th anniversary of RNLI Lifeguards.
Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales travel on a lifeboat ahead their visit to the RNLI Tower Station, March 12, 2026. Kate Green – Getty Images
Fifteen years ago, Kate carried out her first official royal engagement at the RNLI Trearddur Bay Lifeboat Station in Anglesey, Wales. These days, a regular group of royal reporters will attend and cover her public events. But on a blustery day in 2011, as described by Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy, the global media had descended upon a small coastal village to get a glimpse of the then-bride-to-be.
Kate Middleton smiles as she visits the Trearddur Bay Lifeboat Station on February 24, 2011. WPA Pool – Getty Images
“People hung onto her every word as the visit was covered by outlets from the BBC to U.S. celebrity magazines. Photographers lucky enough to be accredited clamored to get the best shots,” Murphy wrote in 2021 in a reflection about the event. “Journalists hoping to hear and see more from the woman who will one day be our queen—but until then had been very much off limits when it came to access—chatted to the crowds and craned our necks to catch the comments from her that were within earshot. It was the days before every moment was recorded on smartphones and immediately posted to social media. But still, the wall of people and cameras, all eyes on Kate, undoubtedly would have been a lot of pressure. Yet, in a sign of things to come, if she had felt the strain, she certainly didn’t show it.”
A glimpse at the crowds of journalists and well-wishers who came to see William and Kate. Christopher Furlong – Getty Images
Kate talks with local children during a walkabout. ANDREW YATES – Getty Images
The location of her first engagement that day was chosen with great consideration. William and Kate were living in a seaside cottage on Anglesey at the time, where the Prince was stationed as an RAF search and rescue pilot. “She’s a local now. We’ve heard she was in Argos the other day,” one 10-year-old in the crowd told The Guardian, while a 13-year-old said of William: “He’s often in the burger bar at Valley.”
The royal couple have since revisited Anglesey for official visits on a few occasions, including in 2022 their first trip to Wales after becoming the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Kate pours champagne over the RNLI lifeboat Hereford Endeavour. WPA Pool – Getty Images
Kate carried off the naming ceremony, pouring of champagne over the side of the lifeboat in accordance with naval traditions, with aplomb. Murphy wrote, “Indeed, this was just one of many ways in which Kate’s first appearance gave us a glimpse of the royal she would become.”
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