Thursday 25 July 2013
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
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Prince William, Duke
of Cambridge
Contents
Early life[edit]
Education[edit]
Royal duties and career[edit]
Military career
Royal Air Force service[edit]
Royal duties
The Duke
of Cambridge" redirects here. For other people known as Duke of Cambridge,
see Duke of Cambridge.
"Prince
William" redirects here. For other uses, see Prince William
(disambiguation).
‹ The template Infobox
royalty is being considered for merging. ›
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Prince
William
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Prince
William in his Royal Air
Force uniform on 12
June 2010
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Spouse
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Catherine,
Duchess of Cambridge
(m. 2011) |
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Issue
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Full
name
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William
Arthur Philip Louis[fn 1]
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Father
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Mother
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Born
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21 June 1982
St Mary's Hospital, London, England |
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Signature
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Religion
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Prince
William, Duke of Cambridge KG KT ADC(P) (William Arthur Philip Louis;[fn 1] born
21 June 1982), is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales,
and his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales.
His kind grandparents are Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh. He is second in line to be successful his grandmother,
after his father.
Prince
William was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a
degree from the University of St Andrews.
He spent parts of a gap year in
Chile, Belize, Tanzania, and Kenya, where he has lived and holidayed several
times. Prince William has also takenKiswahili studies
at universities in Kenya and Tanzania. He also completed training as an officer
(eventually being commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Blues and RoyalsRegiment), and a pilot (earning his wings by
completing pilot training at Royal Air Force College
Cranwell) in the British military. He then underwent helicopter
flying education in order to become a full-time pilot with the Search and Rescue Force.
Prince
William married Catherine Middleton,
on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Hours prior to the event, he was
created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn,
and Baron Carrickfergus.
Their first child, Prince George of Cambridge,
was born on 22 July 2013.
Contents
o 6.3 Arms
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9 Notes
Early life[edit]
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Prince
William was born at St Mary's Hospital, London on 21 June 1982, weighing 7 pounds 1.5
ounces.[2] A
week later on 28 June his name was announced by Buckingham Palace: William
Arthur Philip Louis.[2] He
was baptised in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace on
4 August 1982 (the 82nd birthday of his paternal great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen
Mother) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.[3] William
had six godparents; former King Constantine II of Greece (his paternal cousin); Princess
Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (his paternal cousin); the Duchess
of Westminster; Lady
Susan Hussey; Lord Romsey (his paternal cousin); and Sir Laurens van der Post.[2][4] He
was the first child born to a prince and princess of Wales since Prince John in 1905.[5] The
Prince was affectionately called "Wombat"
by his parents[6] or
"Wills" (the latter a name coined by the press).[7]
At age
seven, William reportedly told his mother that he desired to be a police
officer when he was older so that he might be able to protect her; a statement
to which his brotherresponded:
"Oh, no you can't. You've got to be King."[8] William's
first public appearance was on 1 March 1991 (Saint David's Day),
during an official visit of his parents to Cardiff,
Wales. After arriving by aeroplane, William was taken to Llandaff Cathedral where he signed the visitors' book,
thereby demonstrating that he was left-handed. On 3 June 1991, William was
admitted to Royal Berkshire Hospital after being accidentally hit on the
side of the forehead by a fellow student wielding a golf club. He did not lose
consciousness, but did suffer a depressed fracture of the skull and was
operated on at the Great Ormond Street
Hospital, resulting in a permanent scar.[9] In
a 2009 interview, he dubbed this scar a "Harry Potter scar".
He was reported to have said, "I call it (the scar) that because it glows
sometimes and some people notice it—other times they don't notice it at
all".[10]
His
mother wanted him and his younger brother Harry to have wider experiences than are
usual for royal children. She took them to Walt Disney World and McDonald's as
well as AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless. She bought them typical
teenage items, such as video games.[11] Diana,
who was by then divorced from the Prince of Wales, died in a car accident in 1997. William, along with his
brother and father, was staying at Balmoral Castleat the time. The Prince of Wales
waited until early the following morning to tell his sons about their mother's
death.[12] At
his mother's funeral, William accompanied his father, brother, paternal
grandfather and maternal uncle in walking behind the funeral cortège
from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.
Education[edit]
William
was educated at independent schools,
starting at Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London.[13] Following
this, he attended Ludgrove School near Wokingham, Berkshire, and was privately tutored
during summers by Rory Stewart.[14] At
Ludgrove he also participated in football—along
with swimming, basketball, clay pigeon shooting, and cross country running.
William sat for the entrance exam to Eton College and
was admitted. There he studied geography, biology and history of art at A-Level,
obtaining an A in geography, a C in biology and a B in history of art.[15][16] At
Eton he continued to play football, captaining his house team, and took up water polo.[17] The
decision to place William in Eton went against the family tradition of sending
royal children to Gordonstoun (William's
grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins all attended); however, both
Diana's father and brother had attended Eton.[11] The
Royal Family and the tabloid press agreed that William would be allowed to
study free of paparazzi intrusion
in exchange for regular updates of the Prince's life. The chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, John Wakeham, said of the arrangement: "Prince
William is not an institution; nor a soap star; nor a football hero. He is a
boy: in the next few years, perhaps the most important and sometimes painful
part of his life, he will grow up and become a man."[11]
After
completing his studies at Eton, the Prince took a gap year, during which he
took part in British Army training
exercises in Belize,[18] worked
in English dairy farms, visited Africa,[19] and
for ten weeks taught children in southern Chile. As part of the Raleigh International programme in the town of Tortel,
the Prince lived with other young teachers, sharing in the common household
chores, including cleaning the toilet, and also volunteered as the guest radio
jockey for the local radio station.[18]
By 2001,
William was back in the United Kingdom and had enrolled, under the name William
Wales,[20][21] at
the University of St Andrews.
News of this caused a temporary increase in the number of applications to St
Andrews, mostly from young women who wanted an opportunity to meet him.[22] The
extra attention did not deter him, though, and he embarked on a degree course
in art history, later changing his main subject to geography, and going on to earn a Scottish Master of Arts
degree with upper
second class honours. While at university, he represented the
Scottish national universities water polo team at the Celtic Nations tournament
in 2004.[17] He
was known as "Steve" by other students to avoid any journalists
overhearing and realising his identity.[7]
The
Prince returned to St Andrews in February 2011 as Patron of the university's
600th Anniversary Appeal.[23]
Royal duties and career[edit]
William
began to accompany his parents on official visits at an early age; his first
overseas royal tour was with his parents to Australia and New Zealand in 1983,[24] a
decision made by the Princess of Wales that was considered to be
unconventional; not only was William so young, but both the first and second in
line for the throne would be travelling together.[11] However,
he accompanied either both parents or his father on subsequent tours, and, upon
graduation from university, began to undertake duties of his own, as well as
obtaining experience in the private workforce when he worked with land
management at Chatsworth House and
interned at HSBC.[11]
Military career
Having decided to follow a
military career, in October 2005 William attended the four-dayRegular Commissions Board at Westbury in Wiltshire where he underwent
selection to judge his suitability to become an army officer. Having passed
selection, William went up to theRoyal Military Academy
Sandhurst in January
2006.[25] Successfully
completing the course, William graduated from Sandhurst on 15 December 2006,
the graduation parade being attended by the Queen and the
Prince of Wales, along with other members of the Royal Family. William
officially received his commission as a lieutenant at midnight. With his rank obtained,
as "Lieutenant Wales" (a name based on his father's title, Prince of
Wales), he followed his younger brother[26] into
the Blues and Royals as
a troop commander in an armoured reconnaissance unit, after which he spent four
months in training for the post atBovington Camp, Dorset.
Once
officially enrolled and commissioned in the armed forces, William wanted active
service; in this there were recent precedents: his great-great-uncle Edward VIII, when Prince of Wales, served in France
during the First World War; his great-grandfather George VIserved during World War I with the Navy at
the Battle of Jutland and
in France with the Air Force; and his paternal grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh, served with distinction during World War II. More
recently, his uncle Prince Andrew, Duke of York,
served in theFalklands War.
Though Major-general Sebastian Roberts, General Officer commanding the Household Division,
had said William's deployment was possible, the Prince's position as second in
line to the throne, and the convention of ministers advising against the person
in that position being put into dangerous situations, cast doubts on William's
ability to see combat. These doubts increased after Prince Harry's deployment
was cancelled in 2007, due to "specific threats". William, instead,
went on to training in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission as a sub-lieutenant in
the former and flying officer in
the latter (both broadly equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the army).
With this complete, William undertook an attachment with the Royal Air Force,
undergoing an intensive four-month training course at RAF Cranwell.[27][28] Upon
completing the course on 11 April 2008, he was presented with his RAF wings by
his father,[29] who
had himself received his wings after training at the same college.[30] It
was later revealed that during this secondment Prince William had helped to man
a C-17 Globemaster to Afghanistan, during which he
assisted in the repatriation of the body of Trooper Robert Pearson.[31] William
had been affectionately known by his fellow airmen as "Billy the Fish", a pun on the name "William
Wales".[32]
William
was then seconded to train with the navy for two months, from June to August
2008, during which time he spent three weeks at the Britannia Royal Naval
College, training on units of the surface fleet and submarines, as
well as with the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Marines, before deploying for a further five
weeks on HMS Iron Duke in the Caribbean.[33] It
was during this tour that William took part in a secret underwater mission,[34] as
well as helping to identify and capture a small vessel that had been
transporting approximately £40 million worth of cocaine,[35][36] and
taking part in other raids.[37]
Owing to
William's future role, a long term career in the military was considered out of
the question; due to his position his desire to see active service was always
unlikely to be granted. William originally joined the military on a
short-service commission lasting three years. However, it was announced in
September 2008 that he would be extending his time in the forces, first by
taking on another secondment in 2008 (including working at the MOD and
non-operational flying with the Army Air Corps).[38] Then
it was announced that he would transfer from the Army to the RAF in order to
train as a full-time search and rescue helicopter
pilot;[39] a
role that enables him to take an active role in the armed forces without being
deployed on combat operations.
Royal Air Force service[edit]
Sea King helicopter
being flown by Prince William in 2010.
In
January 2009, William transferred his commission to the RAF and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He trained to become a helicopter
pilot with the RAF's Search and Rescue Force.
In January 2010, he graduated from the Defence Helicopter Flying
School at RAF Shawbury, where he had been under the instruction
of Squadron Leader Craig Finch.[40] On
26 January 2010, he transferred to the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley onAnglesey to receive training on the Sea King search
and rescue helicopter and graduated from this course on 17 September 2010.[41]
It was
announced on 15 April 2010 that William will remain at RAF Valley for his
operational tour, being assigned to No. 22 Squadron and initially performing co-pilot
duties.[42] His
operational tour was expected to last 30 to 36 months.[43]
His first
rescue mission (as co-pilot of an RAF Sea King Helicopter) was a response to an
emergency call from the Liverpool Coastguard on 2 October 2010. The Prince, who
was excited to finally take part in an active mission, and the other three
members of the crew, flew from their base at RAF Valley to an offshore gas rig
in Morecambe Bay, northwest England. A man who had
suffered an apparent heart attack on the rig was airlifted to a local hospital.[44]
William
deployed to the Falkland Islands for
a six-week tour with No. 1564 Flight,
beginning in February and ending in March 2012.[45][46] The
deployment of the Duke to the Falklands close to the 30th anniversary of the
beginning of the conflict (2 April 1982) was condemned by Argentina as
a "provocative act",[47][48] despite
the fact that the RAF regularly deploys flight crews on six-week tours to the
Falklands.[49]
In
November 2011, he participated in a search and rescue mission involving a
sinking cargo ship in the Irish Sea. As co-pilot, he helped rescue two sailors,
who were then transported to a hospital in Bangor.[50]
In
February 2012, the Duke indicated that, rather than leave the service at the
end of his commission in 2013, as had been expected, he would instead remain
with the RAF for a further three-year commission up to at least 2016, which is
when the RAF Search and Rescue Force is due to be disbanded and replaced by
a private contractor.[51]
In June
2012 Prince William gained a qualification to be captain or pilot in charge of
a Sea King rather than a co-pilot.[52]
Royal duties
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