Prince George Steps Up to Duty at Age Eleven
His meeting elderly veterans at Buckingham palace recalls the training of his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, during the Second World War
Of all the images of last week’s commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on May 8—the stirring military parade, the royal family watching with Second World War veterans from a special stand at the Queen Victoria Memorial, the traditional tableau of the King and senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony, the dramatic RAF fly-past—the most important may have been those of the second in line to the throne, eleven-year-old Prince George. Making a surprise appearance at a tea party in the Marble Hall at the Palace, George confidently greeted a small group of nonagenarians and centenarians who had fought in the conflict.
“Getting George ready for his future role”
The young prince has appeared frequently at royal events— among them the annual Trooping the Colour, the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and King Charles III’s coronation (as a Page of Honour)—but this was the first time he deliberately stepped up to participate in an active way. The reason, a former senior adviser at Buckingham Palace told me in London last month, is that Prince William is “focusing on his family, which is probably his most important job, as it means getting George ready for his future role.” George’s appearance at Buckingham Palace was a significant step into the limelight.
A former adviser to William and Catherine described George to me as “on the serious side, but with a nice sparkle, too.” He showed both traits at the Palace tea party, plus an appealing inquisitiveness. Prince William introduced his son to Alfred Littlefield, a 101-year-old veteran of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Littlefield told father and son that he had enlisted in the army at age twenty and that he had swum through the surf under heavy shelling. “What was it like when you were coming in?” George asked. “Pretty awful,” Littlefield replied.
“It’s very important you are here today”
The veteran then said to George, “You know, it’s very important you are here today. It’s days like this that we should use to talk about things like this, so the younger generation can have some understanding. There aren’t many of us left.” To Prince William, the veteran said, “You should be very proud.”
The Princess of Wales shared a conversation between George and 99-year-old Charles Auborn, who joined the Merchant Navy at age eighteen and served as a gunner with the 90th City of London Regiment. He showed mother and son photographs of the M4 Sherman tanks he drove in battle, prompting George to ask, “Were they hard to operate? It must have been very tough with the weather.”
Monarchs over the past century have tried to set an example for the children who would one day succeed to the throne. In each generation, circumstances as well as personalities have shaped the training. King Charles III was kept distant from royal duties while he was away at boarding school from the age of eight.
“I took the plunge and went over and talked to people”
At seventeen he spent two terms in the Australian outback at Timbertop, the wilderness branch of the Geelong Grammar School, and during his six months he first encountered official royal engagements including tours of Sydney and Canberra as well as a visit to a hydro-electric power station. “I took the plunge and went over and talked to people,” he later said. “That suddenly unlocked a completely different feeling.” But it was not until he was studying at the University of Cambridge that his parents periodically interrupted his schedule to perform royal duties— “balcony jobs,” in the sarcastic words of Rab Butler, his principal academic adviser.
The turbulent marriage of Charles and Diana resulted in a more scattered approach to royal duties for Prince William. Before he and Harry were teenagers, Diana took it upon herself to introduce them to “real life” experiences such as visits to homeless shelters and victims of AIDs. Her premature death at age thirty-six when they were fifteen and twelve had a profound impact that is still difficult to estimate. Like his father, William was away at boarding school from an early age, which shielded him from official royal engagements on his own. He answered written questions from a royal reporter at ages sixteen and eighteen, and at twenty-one he sat for his first official interview, accompanied by photographs taken by Diana’s favorite photographer, Mario Testino.
More personally hands-on
In guiding Prince George, as well as his younger siblings, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, William and Catherine have been more personally hands-on than parents in the previous two generations. They have kept all three children in day schools, and they have paid attention to the gradual introduction of George to his future life of duty and service as monarch. In the closeness of their family life, they resemble his great-great grandparents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who oversaw the home schooling of their elder daughter, Princess Elizabeth, especially after the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, put her father on the throne.
For the future Queen Elizabeth II, the Second World War was the singular crucible for her learning, but her training—formal and informal—began much earlier than would be considered customary today.
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