Princess visits home of Save the Children founder

Princess Anne was taken to see a garden created in Eglantyne Jebb's memory

Princess Anne has been to visit the childhood home of Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton, the co-founders of Save the Children.

The Princess Royal is the royal patron of the charity and she met volunteers in Ellesmere, Shropshire, who have been raising awareness of the sisters and their achievements.

Artist Nick Eames said their royal guest "just has this passion for it and a clear, clear view of what Eglantyne and Dorothy were".

Earlier in the day the princess visited the Cavalier Centre near Much Wenlock to meet volunteers and present King's Awards for Voluntary Service to eight Shropshire groups.

Claire Cartlidge, secretary of the Ellesmere sculpture initiative, said Ms Jebb and her sister wanted to solve some of the problems created by World War One.

The royal visit was the "culmination of five or six years work" to create a garden in the town to remember the sisters, she said.

Mr Eames created statues of the sisters which stand in that garden and said he had a "lovely conversation" with the princess, who he said was "really relaxed" and "put everyone at their ease".

A 5ft tall statue carries words from Eglantyne Jebb's Rights of the Child document

At the Jebb Garden in Ellesmere, the Princess Royal saw sculptures which also include a statue of a refugee child finding shelter and stone carving carrying the message: "Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give”.

Those words were used by Eglantyne when her document, Rights of the Child, were agreed by the League of Nations in 1924.

Princess Anne also visited The Lyth country house on the outskirts of Ellesmere, the family home of the sisters.

Princess Anne also visited the Cavalier Centre near Much Wenlock

Juliet Shone composed a musical welcome for the princess, performed by local school children.

She said the sisters "would probably be horrified if they knew we needed them as much now as we did then, if not more".

"It's a very, very important charity and we hope people in the area will now realise where it all started," she added.