Sophie Wessex is elegant in royal blue as she is given birthday cake on school visit

Sophie, Countess of Wessex was all smiles as she was given a birthday cake on aroyal visit to a school.

The wife of Prince Edward, the lateQueen’s youngest son, looked elegant in a royal blue and black dress at the engagement at Connaught Junior School in Bagshot, Surrey on Thursday, 19th January. 

Sophie, whoturned 58 today, beamed as she joined in with science, IT and Home Economics lessons before planting a tree to mark The Queen's Green Canopy initiative.

During the visit, a group of children presented her with a cake – the day before her 58th birthday.

The Countess of Wessex visited the school to open its new STEAM Lab, a space for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths, and to help the school celebrate its 60th anniversary.

As well as the Gabriella Hearst wool-blend dress, Sophie wore black and white pearl earrings and a silver chain necklace that featured a larger pearl.

As she baked later, she wore a personalised white apron featuring the letter ‘S’ surrounded by flowers.

Earlier in the day, Sophie visited the newly refurbished Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot to meet with staff and patients. As she toured the facility, she viewed the hospital's theatre suite, including the anaesthetic room and recovery area.

She was also pictured chatting with patients and families in the hospital waiting area and spent time with nurses, health assistants and service chiefs.

The Countess looked thrilled as she was presented with a birthday card as she left the NHS hospital. The royal was also delighted to have been handed a bouquet of white flowers.

Sophie has close personal ties to Frimley Health, the NHS hospital Trust which runs Heatherwood. She gave birth to both of her children, Lady Louise Windsor, 19, and James, Viscount Severn, 15, at Frimley Park Hospital, which is part of the same group.

Heatherwood is a short drive from her family's residence at Bagshot Park, a mansion estimated to be worth £30m, located on Bagshot Heath near Windsor.

Sophie Wessex is known as one of the most stylish and popular royals

She met Edward, 58, for the first time in 1987 and after bumping into each other again in 1993, the pair soon started dating and went on to tie the knot in 1999.

The mum-of-two has become a much-loved member of the Royal Family. She was known to share an exceptionally close bond with her late mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth II, so much so that the countess was considered the late monarch’s ‘second daughter’ and her closest confidant.

Sophie and Edward showed their feelings to the Queen through their 2022 Christmas card – which carried abeautiful tribute to the late monarch.

The card featured an image of the couple with Her Majesty on a Scottish trip last summer – taken just a few months before the Queen passed away.

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