Harry Dugdale.

Harry Dugdale will forever be grateful to the late Queen Elizabeth II as it was through the monarch that he was able to meet his wife, Adi Litia Mara.

Dugdale and his wife, who is the daughter of former President, the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, attended the Commemoration and Thanksgiving Service at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Suva this morning to pay their respects.

He says his mother, the late Lady Kathryn, was one of Queen Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting and she often accompanied the late monarch on some of her visits to Fiji.

“When the Mara family would come to London sometimes, they would meet with my family sometimes, and it was on one of those occasions where I met my wife-to-be. We went out in London for a while, we got engaged and got married here in Fiji in August 31st, 1991.”

The wedding between Dugdale and Adi Litia’s was hailed then as the “wedding of the year”.

The couple have two children, Charlotte and Michael.