After an education at various schools around the United Kingdom and spending parts of his gap year in Australia and Lesotho, Harry, unlike his elder brother, Prince William, eschewed a university education in favour of following in the footsteps of various royal men by enrolling in the military. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry Regiment – serving temporarily with his brother – and completed his training as a tank commander. He served for 77 days on the front line in the Afghan War,[3] although he was pulled out after an American website revealed his presence.[4]
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Harry was born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, England, on 15 September 1984, the second child of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, younger brother of Prince William, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Baptised at St George's Chapel, in Windsor Castle, by then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, Harry's godparents were his uncle, Prince Andrew, Duke of York; his first cousin once removed, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones; Lady Vestey; Mrs William Bartholomew; Bryan Organ; and Gerald Ward.
Diana wanted William and Harry to have a broader range of experiences than previous royal children and took both to venues that ranged from Disney World and McDonald's to AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless.[5] Diana, Princess of Wales, who was by then divorced from the Prince of Wales, died in a car accident in 1997. Harry and his brother and father were staying at Balmoral Castle at the time, and the Prince of Wales waited until early the following morning to tell his sons about their mother's death.[6] At his mother's funeral, Harry accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather, and maternal uncle in walking behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.[7]
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Continuing on his father's precedent and like his elder brother, Harry was educated at independent schools, starting at Jane Mynors' nursery school[8] and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London. Following this, he attended Ludgrove School, and, after passing the entrance exams, was admitted to Eton College, where he studied geography, art history, and art at A-Level. The decision to place Harry in Eton went against the family tradition of sending royal children to Gordonstoun (Harry's grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins all attended); it did, however, make the Prince follow in the Spencer family footsteps, as both Diana's father and brother had attended Eton.[5] In June 2003, he completed his education at Eton with two A-Levels, obtaining a B in art, and a D in geography,[9] having decided to drop history of art after AS level.[10] He excelled in sports, however, developing his love for sports, particularly polo and rugby union.
After graduation, the Prince took a gap year, during which he spent time in Australia, working (as his father had done in his youth) on a cattle station and participating in the Young England vs Young Australia Polo Test Match.[11] He also travelled to Lesotho, where he worked with orphaned children and produced the documentary film The Forgotten Kingdom,[5] and holidayed in Argentina.
Royal duties and career
Prince Harry began to accompany his parents on official visits at an early age; his first overseas royal tour was with his parents to Italy in 1985.[12] The earlier decision made by the Princess of Wales to take an infant William to Australia set the precedent for young royal children going on official visits.[5] Harry then accompanied either both parents or his father on subsequent tours, though he did not begin solo official engagements until after his military training and active service; in 2008, he began to undertake royal visits to schools and organisations in Wales.
Military career
Prince Harry entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 8 May 2005, where he was known as Officer Cadet Wales, and joined the Alamein Company.[14] Within a year, in April 2006, Harry completed his officer's training and was commissioned as a Cornet in the Blues and Royals, a regiment of the Household Cavalry in the British Army.[15] By April 2008, whereupon he reached two years' seniority, Harry was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Officer Cadet Wales (standing to attention next to the horse) on parade at Sandhurst, 21 June 2005.
The British Ministry of Defence and Clarence House made a joint announcement on 22 February 2007 that Prince Harry would be deployed with his regiment to the front line in Iraq, to serve as part of the 1st Mechanised Brigade of the 3rd Mechanised Division – a move supported by Harry, who had stated that he would leave the army if he was told to remain in safety while his regiment went to war;[16] he said: "There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country."[17] Then head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, first said on 30 April 2007 that he had personally decided that the Prince would serve with his unit in Iraq,[18] and Harry was scheduled for deployment in May or June 2007, to patrol the Maysan province.[19] By 16 May, however, Dannatt announced that Prince Harry would not serve in Iraq;[20] concerns included Harry being a high-value target (as several threats by various groups have already been made against him) and the dangers the soldiers around him would face should any attempt be made on the Prince's life or capture. Clarence House made public the Prince's disappointment with the decision, though he said he would abide by it.[21] In May 2007, British soldiers in Iraq were reported to be wearing t-shirts bearing the statement "I'm Harry!"; a reference to the scene in the movie Spartacus in which the survivors of Spartacus's army, defeated by Roman legions, are offered leniency by Crassus if they will identify their leader. Every survivor declares: "I'm Spartacus!"[22]
It was reported in early June 2007 that Prince Harry had arrived in Canada to train, alongside other soldiers of the Canadian Forces and British Army, at CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat, Alberta. It was said that this was in preparation for a tour of duty in Afghanistan, where Canadian and British forces were participating in the NATO led Afghan War;[23] rumours that were confirmed in February the following year, when the British Ministry of Defence revealed that Harry had secretly been deployed as a Forward Air Controller to Helmand Province in the Asian country.[24] The revelation came after the media – notably, the German newspaper Bild and Australian magazine New Idea[25][26] – breached the blackout placed over the information by the Canadian and British authorities.[27] It was later reported that, while in Afghanistan, Harry had called in United States Air Force air strikes,[28] helped Gurkha troops repel an attack from Taliban insurgents,[29] and performed patrol duty in hostile areas.[30] His tour came 735 years after his ancestor, Edward I of England (then Prince Edward), had also been on military duty in the Middle East during the Ninth crusade,[31] and also made Harry the first member of the Royal Family to have served in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, flew helicopters during the Falklands War; at the time, Andrew was second in line to the thrones of the Commonwealth realms. For his service, Prince Harry was decorated with the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan by his aunt, the Princess Royal, at the Combermere Barracks in May 2008.[32]
In October 2008, the news was revealed that Prince Harry was to follow his brother, father, and uncle with the wish to fly military helicopters. After passing the initial aptitude test, he will undertake a month-long course; depending on whether or not he passes this course he may proceed onto full flight training in early 2009.[33] Harry will need to pass his flying assessment at the Army Air Corps Base in Middle Wallop, the result of which will determine if he will pass on to train as a pilot of either the Apache, Lynx, or Gazelle helicopter.
Royal duties
At the age of 23, Prince Harry was appointed as a Counsellor of State, and began his royal duties by first serving in that capacity when the Queen was abroad to attend the 2005 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta. The following year, Harry was in Lesotho to visit again Mants'ase Children's Home near Mohale's Hoek (which he first toured in 2004), and along with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho launched Sentebale: The Princes' Fund for Lesotho, a charity to aid children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. He has also granted his patronage to a number of other organisations, including WellChild, Dolen Cymru, and MapAction.[35] To aid Sentebale, as well as the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and Centrepoint, Harry and his brother organised the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium, on 1 July 2007.
Sports have also been a way that the Prince has helped charities and other organisations, such as when he trained as a Rugby Development Officer for the Rugby Football Union in 2004 and then coached students in schools in order to encourage them to learn the sport. He has also participated in polo matches, like his brother and father, in order to raise money for charitable causes.
On 6 January 2009, Harry and his brother, Prince William, were granted their own royal household from their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. The household the two princes will share will have three main staff members, supported by a "small" team. Sir David Manning, the former British ambassador to Washington, will work as a part-time adviser to the princes. Previously, William and Harry's affairs had been handled by the office of their father at Clarence House in central London. The brothers' new household released a statement – complete with their own cyphers at the top – announcing that they have established their own office at nearby St. James's Palace to look after their public, military, and charitable activities.[36] Harry's cypher is similar to his brother's, but displays an H in a shade of blue similar to that used by his mother.
Personal life and relationships
Prince Harry has spent much of his free time in sporting activities, playing competitive polo, as well as skiing (at Klosters, Switzerland, and Whistler, British Columbia), and motocross.[11] Harry also earned a reputation in his youth for being rebellious, leading the tabloid press to label him as a "wild child".[37] He was found at age 17 smoking cannabis and partaking in under-age drinking with his friends, would clash physically with paparazzi outside nightclubs,[37] and was photographed at Highgrove House at a "Colonial and Native" themed costume party wearing a German Afrika Korps uniform, usually referred to as a Nazi uniform.[38] He later issued a public statement apologising for his actions.[39]
In January 2009, the British tabloid News of the World revealed a video made by Harry three years previously, in which he referred to a Pakistani fellow officer cadet as "our little Paki friend," and later called a soldier wearing a cloth on his head a "raghead". These terms, were described by David Cameron as "unacceptable",[40] and by The Daily Telegraph as "racist",[40] and a British Muslim youth organisation called the Prince a "thug",[41] a statement that was later retracted.[42] Clarence House immediately issued an apology from Harry, who stated that no malice was intended in his remarks.[43] While the cadet's father refused to accept Harry's apology,[44] a former British MP and Royal Marine, Rod Richards, said that such nicknames were common amongst military comrades, stating "in the Armed Forces people often used to call me Taffy. Others were called Yankie, Oz or Kiwi or whatever. I consider Paki as an abbreviation for Pakistani. I don't think on this occasion it was intended to be offensive."[45] It later emerged that Prince Harry had
personally apologised to the soldier.
Harry's personal relationships have not been followed as much as those of his brother; the most media attention has been focused on his relationship with Chelsy Davy. In an interview conducted for his 21st birthday, Harry referred to Davy as his girlfriend, and the press reported at that time that the couple had been together for 18 months, contradicting earlier reports that they were no longer together.[47] Harry and Davy were also seen together publicly at the Concert for Diana. Although in early 2009 it was again reported in the media that the pair had parted ways,[48] later that year the pair were photographed together at a rugby match, seemingly going public with their relationship.
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