Kate Middleton impresses on first royal engagement

Kate Middleton impressed during her first official royal visit to Wales with Prince William yesterday (24.02.11).

The couple - who are set to marry at London's Westminster Abbey on April 29 - launched a new Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat at Trearddur Bay in Anglesey and impressed 1,000 onlookers by singing the Welsh national anthem fluently.

In a brief address, William, 28, spoke of his 29-year-old fiancee and said she would be living with him at the farmhouse he rents just a few miles from RAF Valley, where he is based as a search and rescue pilot.

He said: "My family are proud of our long association with the RNLI. The queen is its patron today and the Duke of Kent its president. And it gives me huge pleasure to be introducing to this relationship, here and now, someone who is not only about to join the family but is also about to become an Anglesonian."

Kate - who held a bottle of champagne aloft before pouring it over the bow of the Atlantic 85 Hereford Endeavour lifeboat - admitted she was surprised by the turnout.

She said: "So many people, I can't believe it, it's incredible."

Today (25.02.11) they will travel to the University of St Andrews, where they met as students in 2001, and where William will formally be announced as patron of the 600th Anniversary Appeal.

They are also expected to join Prince Harry at London's New Zealand House to sign a book of condolence for victims of the recent earthquake in the country's South Island.