IT'S BEEN 25 years since the eyes of the world soon turned from Paris to Oswestry as news broke of the town's links to a crucial part of the Princess Diana story.
On August 31, 1997, reports broke of a car crash in a Parisian underpass and it was soon confirmed that all but one occupants of the car had died, including Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed.
But one person survived – a bodyguard by the name of Trevor Rees-Jones – and as is said in the industry 'all news is local' it became apparent to Susan Perry, then Advertizer Chief Reporter but now Regional Editor for Newsquest North Wales, that there was indeed an Oswestry link.
The then 29-year-old, who was a front seat passenger in the accident, was Princess Diana's bodyguard and that triggered a memory of a story from just weeks before, the opening of a hardware store by Trevor and his then wife Susan.
Ms Perry, writing in 2017, explained what happened.
She said: “I hit the telephone and started ringing around my contacts. I called anyone and everyone. Could it really be him? Within an hour I had it confirmed. It was Oswestry man Trevor Rees-Jones.
“Even though it was a Sunday and the office was closed I decided to go and see what else I could find out. I was not alone. Soon all my colleagues were there as news spread it was a local lad who had survived the crash that had killed Princess Diana.
“By the time we went to press the next day, we had exclusive pictures of Trevor in his new shop that we had used in the advertisement feature and comments and quotes from friends who knew him well. When the paper hit the streets we had the scoop, the story of the decade.”
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This then brought the international media to Oswestry as Ms Perry fielded interviews from all over the world, including the major US network NBC.
She also interviewed Mr Rees-Jones ahead of his book detailing the events.
Mr Rees-Jones, who spent ten days in a coma, and had his face reconstructed with 150 titanium parts by surgeons, said he had amnesia caused by the crash.
He has since ceased to talk publicly about the event but according to the Daily Mail, he remains in the wider Shropshire area, having worked as head of security for a Texan oil firm in Iraq and is now in a similar role for pharmaceutical firm AztraZeneca.
He was recently seen in the town visiting family.
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