SOPH: IT'S A BOY!

PRINCE Edward and his wife Sophie are convinced their first baby is going to be a boy.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex have told friends they think it's highly likely because both their families have so many male first- born children.

A friend of the couple said: "They don't know officially that it is going to be a boy but they believe it is more than likely. The Royal Family likes chaps and there are a lot of them."

Sophie's pregnancy was announced by Buckingham Palace earlier this month. The baby will be the Queen's seventh grandchild and eighth in line to the throne.

Edward, who was with Sophie at the Windsor Horse Trials yesterday, is the youngest of the Queen's three sons and the last of her children to become a parent.

Prince Charles fathered two sons, William and Harry, while Princess Anne gave birth to a son, Peter Phillips.

The friend said the baby was due on December 6 - two years after Sophie, 38, was rushed to hospital for an operation on a life- threatening ectopic pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer will fly her most treasured possessions to the United States later this year in an effort to prevent her charitable memorial fund from collapsing into debt.

The Earl put Diana's mementoes on display in eight Japanese department stores last year, and he is keen to repeat the exercise in the US. The exhibition - including her wedding dress and childhood toys - was so popular in the Far East that the charity in charge of the keepsakes, The Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, went from a loss to a profit.

The Earl is not paid a salary for the exhibition work and donates all profits to the fund.

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