Harry's Education

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Birth
Early Growing Up
The Ludgrove Years
The Eton Years
The Gap Year(s)
Public Achievements
Troubled Times- The Rebel Prince
Military career
Sentebale

Birth

On 15 September 1984, Diana, The Princess of Wales went in labour. She was taken to St Mary's Hospital, in London's Paddington With Charles at her side throughout, she gave birth to a red-headed child; the new royal baby weighed 6lb 4oz (1). She had known for months that her newest child would be a boy- she had seen it on a scan- but Charles had famously wished for a girl. He had muled over many girls' names, although the thought of what to name a boy must have crossed his mind occasionally. Although choosing William's name had taken several days, it wasn't long after the young prince's birth, the press secretary to the Prince of Wales announced the child's name: Henry Charles Albert David. It was announced at the same time that the baby would always be known as Harry. Harry was christened at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel on 21 December 1984, by the Archbishop of Canterbury (2).

Early Growing Up

As happens with every generation, this new one- William and Harry- brought with it a new realtionship of the Royal Family to the press. Harry was photographed at Highgrove several times as a young child- holding a rabit, playing with his brother and parents, and watching his father taking off in a helicopter from the lawn. Charles called him "absoultely adorable," and few disagreed. The red-headed youngester was shown cuddled by both parents, looking about him with the excitment of first adventures. He appeared comfortable when being photographed in public, not yet aware of his destiny. At a veyr young age, he also learned to stick his tongue out at photographers. He followed in his brother's shadow; Diana commented, "Harry... is the quiter one, and perhaps just sits back and watches." It was an image he would keep for most of his young life.

Harry began school aged barely three, at Mrs Mynors' in London, where his brother had also gone. In 1988, he played a shepard in a school play; his first speaking role. In 1989, Harry switched to Wetherby School, his last day school. (3) At this point in his life, deep family tensions had begun, although he was by all accounts a happy child. He had the best part of two worlds: he made high-profile public apperances and did photocalls with his family, but these were few and far between; at school, although he had begun to realise his royal rank, he mixed and mingled with children from varied backgrounds.

Harry's parents did their best to ensure both William and Harry had a stable early upbringing. Charles and Diana both adored thier children, by all accounts making sure to give them equal love and affection. While there was tension between The Prince and Princess of Wales, Harry developed equal bonds with both parents. He enjoyed city life in London near his schools as well as country weekends at Highgrove in Gloucerstershire. He had a typical brotherly relationship with his elder brother, who had been very eager to meet him after his birth and who now lavished affection on him.

The Ludgrove Years

In September of 1992, Harry joined William at Ludgrove School in Berkshire. Aged eight, he was a boarder. Because of his September birthday, Harry was one of the youngest in his intake. Through his earlier education as a day boy, Harry had proved able enough and was not thought a weak nor a poor student. As he joined Ludgrove and adjusted to being away from his family, he had William and headmaster Gerald Baber to lean on.

It was while at Ludgrove that Harry went through first his parents' seperation, and then thier divorce. Harry thrived socially at Ludgrove, but acadademically he began to suffer. Growing concerned, Prince Charles took his son to an outside evaluator in May 1997, by which time he had already dropped back a year at Ludgrove. Reportedly upset that she had not choosen the evaluator, Diana then took Harry to see another one. He had been forced to repeat a year of school because he was failing badly- supposedly, every class except for "Sports." The British media was widely suprisingly quite, allowing Harry to struggle through his pre-prearatory school years without digging into his personal academic life. Harry dedicated himself to his studies, and eventually passed the Common Entrance Exam, with Ludgrove grades good enough to allow him to enter Eton combined with his entrance exam score.

The Eton Years

On 4 September 1998, Harry started at Eton College. Long considered a weak student, Harry had undergone extra tutoring at Ludgrove to prepare for the exam, and in 2005, a former teacher from Eton, while in a controversial court case where she would make many unsupported claims about the prince, would say that when Harry's entrance exam was marked, teachers desperately looked for areas to give him extra marks in so he would pass. There were widespread rumors that he would attend a less academic school, but Eton was decided on, espically in the wake of Diana's death a year previously. Besides the death, Charles had publicy enforced that Eton had "done wonders" for William. He was placed with his brother in Manor House, where he would be under the guidance of housemaster Dr Andrew Gailey, whom William later called "a tremendous support." Bringing back memories of when Charles, Diana, and Harry had accompianed William on his first day, Charles and Harry arrived with large smiles to face the vast assembled media; William, who did not attend the photocall to let his brother have all of the spotlight, was seen leaning out a window in Manor House with friends, watching with a big smile. Harry and Charles were greeted outside of Harry's new boarding house by Dr Gailey, with whom they shook hands, and the housemaster then led them over to meet headmaster John Lewis. Mr Lewis showed Harry and his father to the traditional signing of the enrollment book. Remembering how William had signed in the wrong place three years previsouly, Charles joked, "Make sure you sign in the right place." Without looking up, Harry immediately said light-heartedly, "Shut up, Dad." On the day, a press secretary of Charles expressed to the press the princes' thanks for all thier support, which had helped them "tremendosouly" but asked the media to now move on. The next day, in a second and final photo oppurtunity, the young prince, unaccompained by his father this time, led his new first-year housemates to chapel and then to his first lesson, French. Later that day, he headed out to the sports fields to decided which sports he would like to join.

Harry immediately got up to mischief. He settled in well, but in October, a schoolboy prank went wrong when Harry was forced to get most of his hair shaved off after his friends attempted to cut it and it went horridly wrong. Prince Charles was at first angry, but quickly became rather amused. Harry, for his part, thought it was hilarious.

The following April, The Mirror ran a story telling how Harry had been badly bruised playing rugby, and had to be taken to hospital to have it examined. Although the story was true, Charles felt that it violated the agreement to leave Harry and William alone at school. He had already been angered when The Mirror had been the paper to expose Harry's haircut incident the previous October. However, Charles was forced to withdraw his complaint after the Press Complaints Comission decided that the story did not cause Harry any damage.

Harry quickly became popular with a reputation for mischeviuosness. He grew close to William, and the two were able to depend on each other. Harry also became very fond of his housemaster and Dr Gailey's wife Shauna, as well as the house "Dame," or matron, Elizabeth Heathecote. Drawing on their support, Harry grew up into a stable young man, coping well and doing fairly well academically. Although not as academically gifted as his brother, Harry did wonderfully on the sports field, doing well in the infamous Eton Wall and Eton Field games, as well as playing rugby, football (American soccer), and polo successfully for the school. Harry is thought to have done very well- possibly even better than William- on his GCSEs, with reports saying that he passed up to twelve (an extremelly respectable acomplishment), even passing a few a year early.

However, things did not continue to go so well. As his drinking and smoking became heavier, his grades began to slide. In, he was shocked and dissapointed- as was his father- when he failed two of three very important AS-levels; on his third, he barely scraped by. Still hoping to go to university, Harry talke over his bad grades with his father and continued on to A-levels with determination. As he began to get his life back under control in the fall of 2001, his grades began to improve. However, he was still not up to the task of achieving the grades he needed for university. In order to go to a good university such as St Andrews, were William was studying will Harry prepared for A-levels, he would have to achieve fairly good grades in three A-levels; virtually no academic university would be open to him should he not achieve three A-level passes, D or above. Sandhurst Military Academy, however (England's West Point) accepts a minimum of two A-level passes. Harry was faced with a delemia. He was struggling, and if he strove for three A-levels, he was worried that the workload would cause fails or very low passes on two. Should that happen, the two low grades or fails would anyway prevent him from entering a non-military school. He espically feared that the workload would cause two just plain failing grades, which would mean that he could never enter Sandurst and fulfill his dream of becoming an army officer. The safer option was to drop one of his three A-levels and concentrate on two. That is very, vey rare for Eton, where most students get very good grades on three A-levels. Harry spent the months after his A/S-level failure contemplating how to handle his A-levels. He had long talks with his academic advisors, his housemaster, and his father. Finally, in March of 2003, he choose to drop his History of Art A-level, keeping Art and Geography. This forever barred the possibility of him entering a non-military university after Eton. However, he still struggled. It is exceedingly rare for an Etonian to achieve a D on an A-level, even though virtually every Etonian takes three. However, even with only two, Harry achieved a D in Geography and a B in Art. Even so, his father said, “I am very proud of Harry. He has worked hard for these examinations and I am very pleased with today’s results.” The grades were low, but for Harry, they were- just barely- what he needed- two passes, good enough to apply to Sandhurst.

The Gap Year(s)

In June 2003, Harry announced has plans following Eton. He announced that he hoped to enter Sandhurst Military Academy. He spent the summer relaxing, and in October, headed off to Australia. Upon landing in Sydney, he gave a photocall at the Tarongo Zoo in the city, where he said he would be attending the Rugby World Cup matches- "I might as well, why not?" He then headed off to the outback to live and work as a jackaroo (cowboy/ farm hand) at the ranch of a family friend. It was supposed to be a private location, where Harry could be left alone to relax and work, but within the hour, the media found out where he was staying, and "beseiged" him. The attention got so bad that the palace begged the media to leave the young prince alone. Within the next couple of days, things had gotten so bad that Clarence House was saying that Harry may be forced to come home- and that if the media chased him out, neither he nor his brother would be returning to the country. Harry's close friend and aide Mark Dyer (in his thirties) was accompanying Harry on the trip. At a local pub, he told media how Harry was "in pieces" and saying he "might as well go home" after being forced to stay inside (following being photographed with long-lenses while working) and cancel a planned trip to a local rodeo. Despite reports, however, Harry stayed on the ranch. The attention soon settled down. The following week, Harry attended a differnet rodeo in the town, laughing, smiling, chatting, drinking Coke, and having a good time recording the fun on his video camera and mixing with the locals. In November, he thanked the media by inviting them to visit the ranch to film him working, riding a horse named Guardsam in a round-up, then dismounting to pose for the cameras, wearing an akurba (cowboy hat) and smiling next to the horse. In December, the prince headed home in time for Christmas, were his brother was waiting with an "extra special" gift to welcome Harry home (although William had use those words to describe the gift previsouly in an interview, we do not know what it was).

Next was the most highly publicsed part of Harry's time off between Eton and Sandhurst. In February 2004, he headed to Lesotho, the remote and extremelly poor country nesteled in the north of South Africa. He was filmed and photographed planting a tree at an orphange. The following day, he played rugby with the kids. It was meant to be just another part of his gap year, but Harry instantly fell in love with the country and its children, and began to take a huge interest in the problems. After his scheduled trip ended, the country immediately called him back, and he was back within a few months. He decided to make a documentary about the country and its problems, during which he also gave a very extensive interview about large areas of his life. The money raised through this gave the children a wonderful protective fence about the orphange as well as beds for the first time. Almost one million US dollars were raised. To this day, Harry takes a huge interest in the orphange he first visited in March 2003, visiting the children and offering his support.

The next step of Harry's gap year was to volunteer to teach rugby to intercity school children. Harry very much enjoyed this, teaching many children to love the game more, and offering a support and encouragment that made him instantly popular among the children. However, the time he spent teaching the children aggrivated an old knee injury. On 30 November of 2004, Harry said, “The specialist has told me my knee has recovered, and with physiotherapy, and strength and conditioning work it should be back to normal soon. However, I want to make sure I am 100 per cent physically prepared for Sandhurst, so I have decided to wait until May just to be sure. While I am disappointed that I cannot start as planned in January, I am still very much looking forward to starting my Army career next year.” To ensure complete physical fitness, Harry's time off was extended from January 2005 until May of the same year. Very dissapointangely, this also meant that the trip Harry had very much anticipated, to improve his polo game in Argentina, the unchallenged capital of the polo world, had to go forward without Harry not even being able to ride a horse- much less play polo- during his time there. He instead worked on the ranch without riding to ensure his contiuning health. The trip was shortened, according to Clarence House, even before Harry left England, but reports would have him returning early do to an alleged kidnap plot. Harry's gap "year," now extended to nearly two, ended upon his entering Sandhurst on 9 May 2005.

Public Achievements

The problem is, the media try to portray him as a one-demensional character, and he's not like that, no one's like that. He's not the party prince and he's not a saint, said Paddy Haverson, Harry's press secretary, the man in charge of his public image. And it is true- the media nag on Harry, critising his every move, complaining when they don't get photo opportunities, then when they get thier pictures, proclaiming in huge headlines that it was all a PR set-up. He can't get away from his party-boy image no matter what good he is doing. People only vaguely familiar with Britian's royals rarely know any of Harry's charitable works; their only knowledge of him is of the scandal he causes. But Harry has done a lot of good. Publicly, the grand opening of Harry's desire to follow on his mother's chartiable works was on his 18th birthday- 15 September 2002.

In an interview to mark the occasion, Hary said, "I want to carry on the things that she didn't quite finish." To mark his 18th, Harry undertook his first round of solo public engagments. He visisted Great Ormond Street Hospital, the children's hosptial which his mother supported until the day she died. He also visisted a drop-in centre for troubled youth, the West Ham soccer grounds, and a primary school, as well as private engagments having to do with AIDS and drugs (although he declined to visist a rehab centre- when aides brought the prospect up, he is said to have joked, "No more rehab, please- I've done rehab!). He sat with cancer patients, signed a cast, and posed happily for pictures. Harry attended a memorial service for the victims of September 11th, 2001- his engagments came almost exactly a year after the attacks. "It was quite difficult at first, being younger and not as experienced as some of the people I was meeting," Harry commented afterwards in his interview. He expressed a wish to become better at it with time, lifting up his mother as an example of ease at the job. "It wasn't just a one-off thing," he declared. Although he felt he had previsouly been too young to participate in such things, he was now ready to carry on his mother's legacy.

As the months went on after Harry's 18th birthday, some began to wonder when he would make good on his vows. He had said he needed to "buckle down" to his A-levels first. He continued with a low profile for the next year- his next major apperance was the following October when, now nineteen, he posed for photographers at a zoo in Sydney, Australia. While in Australia, Harry learned a very important lesson about the media. Having done the photocall upon his arrival, Harry has wished- and indeed expected- to be left alone for the remainder of his stay, giving another photo opportunity sometime after he had gotten settled, in another month or so. However, he soon felt mobbed, forced to stay inside by the intrusion. He stuck it out, though, appearing in public in another couple weeks, and then giving a photocall in November. He had learned to stay through the intrusion, even though the palace had announced that they would consider removing him from the country if the intrusion continued. He made another high-profile apperance at the Rugby World Cup, cheering his team on to victory and then hanging around with them in the locker room afterwards, saying at one point, "Gran's sent me a text message saying she's going to throw you a party when you get back," which she did. He returned home in time for Christmas, a boatload of experience now behind him on how to handle the media and its presence.

The most revoultionary of his public achievements, however, is a big one. In March of 2004, he headed off to Lesotho, planning to stay for a couple months to get a taste of the tiny, poor African nation and its people and problems. At the beginning of his visist, he gave a photocall, planting a tree with the help of an orphan at an orphange. The media mainly left him alone for the rest of his trip. This, however, was the one time where Harry was ready to speak out. He left the country as scheduled, but was almost immediately drawn back. The country and its suffering people had touched his heart, and here was were his fame could be of enormous help. Together with TV filmer Jack Bradly, the idea came about of doing a documenatary. He was determined, however, that the show would not be all about him, but about the nation with which he had fallen in love. However, it was of his making, and he gave an extensive sit-down interview about not only how his life had been touched, but about his family and experiences- and his feelings about the media. It was the real mark of when Harry became a more public prince, a huge step into the world that combined his royal status with his longings as a human being to help people, and was a huge success. He raised nearly one million US dollars from the documentary. Furthermore, he learned as he was making it, a South African farmer had seen his photocall on the news. Lesotho is nestled in the north-eastern corner of the nation of South Africa, and this farmer drove into Lesotho to help. He helped put up the fence- and donated pounds 4,000 (about 7,800 US dollars), which paid for the entire fence. Harry happily commented on how this would keep all of the children "safe inside the orphanage," calling it "perfect." On his more public role, and espically on his desire to follow on his mother's legacy, he said "I'm only nineteen, and there's half a me- a big part of me- that says, 'Right, it's now time to settle down and carry on my mother's legacy. But at the age of nineteen, it's pretty hard work.'" However, he was certainly willing to try.

Troubled Times- The Rebel Prince

The realtionship with the media was not always so smooth, however. Having lost his mother just two weeks before his thirteenth birthday, Harry did not have the smoothest of teenager years. His mother had called him "the naughty one," and his loving father set out upon raising two teenage boys himself. It was never going to be easy, and after both boy had safely graduated from England, Charles spoke about how it was "probably quite important to have both" parents- for the extra discipline it provided. Like all single parents, Charles was faced with the delemia of imposing the discipline and genteness of two parents himself. Harry and his father have always been close, but that does not protect Harry from indulging his sometimes rebellious, michevous nature. When he was twelve, reports stirred up about his holiday-time drinking, and at eleven he was photographed sampling a cigarette in the company of nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke. The problem, though, was that unlike most of his young friends, Harry was not able to simply stop the holiday excess when he went back to his routine life. Most reports have him begining serious smoking while aged fourteen at Eton, hidden away with friends in his boarding house, some indulging and some keeping guard. By the time he was fifteen, nearing sixteen, newspapers got hold of stories of him drinking serisouly. On one occasion, aged near of just over sixteen, he drank so much before midnight that he was sick across the bar at a party at the Duke of Westminster's home, and had lost his bodyguard for an hour- no laughing matter. Due to thier deal to respect William and Harry's privacy, the newspapers "let it slide," in the words of News of the World editor Clive Goodman. "Graudally, though, more and more things started to come unravelled."

Although reports of Harry's misbehaving are often distorted and frequently exageratted in the press, there are certain aspects of rebellious adolecesent behavior that shine through regardless of his status. By the summer during which he was sixteen, his father had begun to frequently carpet him over late-night drinking antics, and he had been barred from a pub local to his Highgrove home, the Rattlebone Inn. By the end of that summer of 2001, his father had caught him taking illegal drugs- on at least two occasions, it appears now. Although the story his his illegal drug-taking and extremelly heavily drinking underage were twisted to the point of being a pack of straight lies, members of staff- including the palace spin doctor himself- let more information out, admitting that much more serious behavior had been covered up and that Harry had continued using drugs even after the infamous 2001 rehab visist.

Undoutabetly, one of the roughest periods of Harry's growing up started in 2001, whatever the actual story behind it. Although he is often portrayed, even now, as a rebel without a real cause, much went on in Harry's life in the years between which he was fifteen and seventeen. Since the fall following his mother's death (one year later), he had been under William's wing at Eton. When the school holidays broke up, the two brothers went back to Highgrove, where a family rule was in place so that either William or Charles was with the young Harry when he was at Highgrove. However, in 2001, that changed. Harry had to face the theft trials of Paul Burrel, an enormous burden on him. Overlapping, he faced the prospect of William leaving his side at Eton and travelling the world, preparing to move to Scotland for university. Believing Harry was now old enough to be left alone, Charles no longer enforced the rule that Harry could not be unaccompained at Highgrove. It would have been tough for any teenager, with the new found sense of both pressure and freedom, but Harry fell in with a bad lot of friends near Highgrove, who led him off the rails- although not among them was Guy Pelly, actually in Australia during the time he was accused of leading Harry astray.

Most stories of the prince stop there- but Harry's rough story does not. His life did not immediately straighten out as he grew used to the new restircitons placed on him by his family and his school in wake of his rough summer. First, he faced the heavy criticsms that his family should have done more to stop the Paul Burrel trial. As he got over those, he faced the excrucriatingingly embarrasing episode of his drinking and drug-taking becoming public, some stories packed with details of his supposed conversations and emotions, as well as his family and school's reaction to his problems. The day after the story became public, he faced going back to Eton and seeing his friends and teachers. He recovered nicely to tell reporters he was recovering "fine, thank you" from the allegations in March, but within a few days of the comment, his great-grandmother, The Queen Mother, had died at 101. He went through the heartbreaking re-play of the walk behind his mother's funeral, holding excellent public composure. Within a few months, though, when he again broke up for his summer holdays from Eton, the press showed they weren't going to be quick to forgive his previous excursions, carpeting him for drinking nine shots of vodka spirits at a private party. Where his father's office had once been quick to acknowledge his mistakes- and indeed Harry himself had been in his 18th birthday interview- they were not willing to take Harry being unfairly pilliored- this time, they told the press: "He has done nothing wrong." And it was the beginning of a new image to be portrayed.

Military Career

For his entire life, Harry has been fascinated by the military, a fact which first came out when he was featured with a delighted grin on his face, riding on a tank in Germany during his first official public engagment. Throughout his growing up, he attended several events associated with the military, and he has aways been surronded by the Queen's guard when staying at official royal residences.

Harry enrolled in the Cadet Corps in the lower sixth at Eton (two years before he graduated). He distinguished himself, but not enough to win the Sword of Honour, an award William had recieved that is bestowed upon the best senior cadet. However, he beat his brother on another point: he was choosen to lead the annual cadet parade, a huge achievement. He confidently led the 'troops' around the parade grounds, barking out commands, keeping a solemn look on his face.

Harry dropped his third A-level during his last year at Eton, virtually ending his chances of going to a respectable university, and confirming in all but word that he was going to join the military- while three A-levels are needed more most universities, a cadet entering the military to become an officer need only pass two. Despite this, most cadets at Sandhurst Military Academy are university graduates, so the palace thought from the start that Harry should take an almost double gap year (see above). During the beginning of the second gap year, Harry began really training for the army, getting in top shape to enter on the annoucned intended date of January 2005. However, as he was training, running up and down stairs, he slipped and hurt his knee. Eventually, it would force him to postpone his entrance to May.

Harry entered Sandhurst Military Academy on 8 May 2005. Despite a slightly rough start with multiple injurys and illnesses, Harry adjusted well- indeed, he later said, better than he thought- to army life. Although he did not particulary distuingish himself, he did well, and passed out of (graduted from) the Academy on 12 April 2006, at the Sovereign's Parade. It was the first time his grandmother Queen Elizabeth had attended the Parade in 15 years- and Harry couldn't help grinning and blushing a very deep crimson when she greeted him on inspection. It was announced at the time that Second Lt Harry Wales would be joining the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Calvary; he hopes to become an Armoured Reconnaissance Troop Leader.As was officially announced, this decision was influence by the track record of the Blues and Royals as in actively serving regiment in danger zones around the world. Harry enjoyed a short breal, spent chiefly with his girlfriend Chelsy Davy, then went with his reigment to be stationed Windsor for a short time. He will return to Windsor with regiment after completing his training at Bovington Camp in Dorset, where he began in May 2006 and will remain until approximately October. At this camp for all of the new officers hoping to become Armoured Reconnaissance Troop Leaders, he will learn how to operate a tank, and be instructed in its use and maintance, and have general gunmanship training. Once he completes this training, he will again join his regiment in Windsor, but as an Armoured Reconnaissance Troop Leader in charge of eleven men and four light tanks.

Sentebale

I want to carry on the things she didn't quite finish, Harry declared on his 18th birthday. He was refering to the charitable works of Diana. "It wasn't just a on-off thing- I've wanted to do something like this for a long time." But after his 18th birthday, as he knuckled down to his last year of school, some wondered when exactly that would happen- until his gap year plans were announced! As the time went on after his summer of relaxation, it was announced that Harry would be pursuing more of his mother's work. He left for Africa, where he worked with teenage mothers for a time. He was serious about his work, but it was March 2004 when Harry underwent the project that would have the greatest impact of his life. Shortly after arriving in Africa, Harry spent one week working with oprhans at their home in a small, underprivileged village. Here he was introduced to Prince Sesso of Lesotho, like Harry a second son, and the two of them, two years later, would begin the project that would become Senetable.

Prince Sesso, too, had a mother with whom he was very close and whom made quite a large difference with her own charity work. And he, too, wanted to honour his late mother by carrying on her work. So the two princes set out to start a charity that would reflect this wish. The first touch was the name Sentebale, which in the native language of Lesotho, Sesotho, means forget-me-not. Harry has said "as far as I'm concerned, I'm commited for the rest of my life" and he certainly seems prepared to live up to that. He was in Lesotho for the launch of Senetable in April 2006, giving a photocall and interview. Even though he was following his mother's mold, Harry did say he wanted to do something "slightly different". His work, he admits, has made him "slightly grumpy" with those friends back home who do not appreciate the lives they have been given."It really hits you hard," he added, "and makes you wake up and think...I'm really very, very lucky." Harry now awaits the challenge of running his charity while at work with his army regiment. Although he vowed to return to Lesotho, there has not yet been any public return as he knuckles down to army life.

(1, 2, 3): http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/princes/harry/harry_index.html

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Harry's Education