Harry Dugdale met his wife-to-be Adi Litia Cakobau Mara through his mother, Lady Kathryn Dugdale’s trips to Fiji in 1977 and 1982 when she accompanied Queen Elizabeth II.
Lady Kathryn was Queen Elizabeth II’s lady-in-waiting.
Mr Dugdale said it was through the Queen that he found his wife.
“I guess the interesting thing is indirectly, it was the Queen that introduced me to my wife,” he shared yesterday, after attending a thanksgiving service for the life of the late Queen at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Suva.
Lady Kathryn served as one of the Queen’s longest-serving ladies-in-waiting from 1955 to 2002.
“She had come to Fiji twice with Her Majesty and during those trips, my mother met with the Mara family.”
Mr Dugdale said he met his wife during one of the Mara family’s trips to England in 1988.
“When the Mara family would come to London, sometimes they would meet with my family.
“It was during one of those occasions I met my wife or my wife-to-be.”
Mr Dugdale recalled his last encounter with the late Queen was at a birthday party at Windsor Castle in 2000.
The couple got married in Fiji on August 31, 1991 and have two children who reside in England.
Meanwhile, more than 100 people attended the thanksgiving church service.
During the church service, the Republic of Fiji Military Services accorded the last post, signaling the end of her long reign.
