Queen Mary's secret visit to Australia six months after her father John Donaldson died

Queen Mary has quietly returned to Australia with King Frederik for an intensely personal reason, six months after the death of her beloved father.The Australian-born royal and her husband made a discreet journey from Denmark to Hobart, Tasmania, where they attended a private memorial service for Professor John Donaldson on Wednesday.Their visit was not accompanied by the fanfare usually associated with a royal arrival and was only confirmed when the Danish Royal House added the engagement to its official diary.The brief entry revealed the King and Queen would 'attend a private memorial service for the Queen's father Mr John Donaldson in Hobart, Tasmania' on September 30.The deeply personal trip marks Mary's first known return to her home country since her father died in Hobart on April 11 at the age of 84.It is also a poignant return to the city where the future Queen was born and raised - and where her father spent much of his life.The royal couple have kept the visit private, with no public engagements scheduled during their stay.Back in Denmark, their 20-year-old son Crown Prince Christian has been serving as regent during his parents' absence.Queen Mary has quietly returned to Australia with King Frederik to attend a private memorial service for her father, Professor John Donaldson [pictured with Queen Mary]Mary's last visit with her father Mary's return to Tasmania comes just over six months after she was able to spend final, precious moments with her father.The Queen and King Frederik had travelled to Australia in March for their first official visit to the country since ascending the Danish throne in January 2024.At the end of the trip, Mary set aside time to visit her ailing father in Hobart.The Danish Royal House later revealed his health had been declining for several years and said the pair had shared 'precious time together' during that final visit.John died weeks later on April 11.Mary announced the devastating news in an unusually personal statement the following day.'My heart is heavy, and my thoughts are grey. My beloved father has passed away,' she said.'But I know that when the grief settles, the memories will brighten my day, and what will remain strongest is love and gratitude for everything he gave me and taught me.'The Royal House confirmed at the time that the family intended to hold a private memorial service at a later date. This gathering has now brought Mary and Frederik back to Tasmania. King Frederik X and Queen Mary (above) visited her father in late March From Tasmania to the Danish royal family John Dalgleish Donaldson was born in Scotland on September 5, 1941, before moving to Tasmania in the 1960s.A mathematician, he built a long academic career at the University of Tasmania, where he specialised in numerical analysis and eventually served as Dean of the Faculty of Science before retiring in 2003.He and his first wife, Henrietta Clark Horne, raised four children, including Mary, who was born in Hobart in 1972.John would later find himself unexpectedly connected to one of Europe's oldest monarchies after his daughter met then-Crown Prince Frederik during the Sydney Olympics in 2000.He proudly walked Mary down the aisle when she married Frederik at Copenhagen Cathedral in 2004.As Mary built her new life in Denmark, her father's declining health increasingly made the distance between her two homes difficult.He was unable to make the long journey to Denmark for several important family occasions in his later years.Mary previously acknowledged the reality of his advancing age and poor health after he was unable to attend Princess Isabella's confirmation.'He is getting to be an elderly gentleman and he is not well enough to take the long trip back to Denmark for a confirmation, but he is with us in our hearts,' she said at the time.His death came just weeks after Mary's return to Australia in March, giving particular significance to the time she had managed to spend with him in Hobart.Now, six months later, the Queen has returned once more - this time with Frederik by her side as the family privately remembers the man who remained one of Mary's strongest links to the Australian life she left behind more than two decades ago.