Though she has lived in Denmark ever since she started dating Frederik, then the Crown Prince, Mary has maintained a close relationship with her family and with Australia writ large. She was able to spend time with her father during her state visit to the continent at the end of March. The Danish royal family lowered the flags of Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, to half-mast as a mark of respect.
Professor John Dalgleish Donaldson was born on 5 September 1941 to Captain Peter Donaldson and his wife, Mary Dalgleish. Captain Donaldson faced a crisis at sea in 1962 when a vessel under his command was lost near Ninth Island, near the north-east coast of Tasmania. Captain Donaldson and his crew were later rescued.
In a twist of fate, the following year John Donaldson would marry Henrietta Clark and just three months later emigrate to Tasmania. It was a family affair: Captain and Mrs Donaldson also relocated, as did their other son and daughter. It was on Tasmania that John and his family built a life for themselves. He and Henrietta welcomed four children, the youngest of whom, Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, would become Queen Mary of Denmark.
John Donaldson, dressed in a kilt in tribute to his home country of Scotland, had the eyes of the world on him when he walked his daughter down the aisle at her royal wedding in 2004
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A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, John Donaldson studied for his PhD in Mathematics under the direction of mathematician Professor David Elliott at the University of Tasmania. On completing his doctorate in 1967, Donaldson remained at the university and became a lecturer in applied mathematics. He also acted as visiting professor at universities in Houston, Montreal and Oxford. In a move that ties his career to his daughter’s path as a royal, he was employed by the University of Copenhagen from 2006.