The Duchess's Speech - Telegraph It is one thing to be a public figure, quite another to be a public speaker. The pressure on the Duchess of Cambridge ahead of her maiden performance, delivered yesterday at the Treehouse hospice in Ipswich, may not have been quite of the magnitude felt by George VI - but it must still have been a nerve-racking occasion. Fortunately, the Duchess delivered her remarks with the same informal aplomb that she has brought to the rest of her royal duties, such as her visit to Leicester with the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall earlier this month. Indeed, the theme of her remarks - on the power of working as a team - could be applied not just to her partnership with her husband, but to the efforts of the Royal family as a whole. To stand in the glare of the spotlight takes not a little courage; the Duchess appears to have that quality in spades.