IPSWICH: Among the crowd to welcome Kate to the town was a group of schoolchildren from Broke Hall Primary School.

The school held a ballot to give pupils the chance to meet the Duchess and a lucky group of 20 children from years five and six were picked to attend.

Before the Duchess embarked on her tour of the hospice, she stopped outside to greet the children and asked them questions like what class they were in. Some of them managed to get close up shots of her with their camera phones.

Deputy head of Broke Hall Sian Kingston said: “It’s been very exciting and now the children are here, they realise just how exciting it is. I think their parents will be very proud especially when they find out that they got to speak to her in person.

“One of the children said how nice it was that she had come to Ipswich.

“She could have gone straight inside but she took the time to speak to the children which was lovely.”