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Tour of duty: Prince Harry in Helmand province during his first tour of Afghanistan. (Photo: Mirror) |
By Mirror
UK: Prince Harry was just six years old when he gleefully told big brother William: “You’ll be King, I won’t; so I can do what I want!”
And as he looks forward to his 30th birthday in September, he can be proud of the fact he has lived up to this early vow, becoming one of our most respected and lovable royals in the process.
Growing up as the “spare” to William’s “heir” , little Harry could easily have felt sidelined as his older brother was singled out for special treatment.
In a new biography, royal correspondent Marcia Moody writes: “William often received the lion’s-share of attention from some senior members of the family and some of the staff.
“The Queen Mother used to put a seat next to her and call for William to sit on it, and he also used to go to Clarence House, without Harry, to see her.”
But it is a mark of the kind of man Harry was to become that he looked on the bright side and saw his advantage: the kind of freedom William would never have.
And he made the most of it.
As a little boy Harry loved getting up to mischief – much to the frustration of the nannies and teachers whose job was to keep the frisky youngster in check.
Like many vivacious children, he responded best to strict boundaries of the kind imposed by nanny Olga Powell.
Inspector Ken Wharfe, who was William and Harry’s personal protection officer from 1986 to 1988 and then their mother Princess Diana’s until 1993, said: “Olga Powell was without doubt the favourite nanny.
“She was a no-nonsense individual who had almost Edwardian codes of discipline that in today’s climate you probably wouldn’t get away with. I mean she would occasionally give them a smack.
“When he was a little older I remember one of her classic phrases to Harry was ‘Harry I love you, but I don’t like you’, because he was a nuisance. He was vibrant. But she was strong with him and I think children like that because they know where they stand.”
But he proved a bit too much of a handful for another nanny, Jessie Webb.
In the book Wharfe explains: “She was a good nanny, but more of a fun person. They used to play Jessie up because she wasn’t really their type and she would come and knock on my door and say ‘Ken, can you have a word with them, they’re being very naughty.’
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“I would say, ‘Harry, what’s going on, mate?’ ‘I don’t like Jessie,’ he’d say. ‘Well you’d better get to like her, OK? I gather you’ve been rude to her. What did you say?’
“‘I told her she should lose weight.’ ‘Well that’s not very nice, Harry, is it?’ He would later apologise to Jessie because he was under strict instructions from Diana to do so.”
But even Diana’s patience was tested by the young prince. Wharfe says the most angry he ever saw her was when she was telling Harry off for hitting William with a snooker cue during a fight while they stayed on Richard Branson’s Caribbean island Necker.
Wharfe adds: “You had to keep an eye on him. There was an infinity pool in Necker and the water dribbled over the edge. Of course Harry would go and stand on the edge.
“He was always pushing the boundaries. That was never the case with William, he’d never have done that. He’d say to his mother, ‘Oh, Harry’s done such-and-such again’.”
Harry struggled with school work and relied on his boundary-pushing and cheeky sense of humour to win favour.
Wharfe says: “He wasn’t the brightest academically. He wasn’t stupid, but there were too many distractions for him. He was always getting told off. If there was fun to be had, he would do that rather than work. I think he found school a bit of a chore.”
Harry was just 12 years old when he was woken by William and dad Charles on the morning of August 31 1997 and told his mother had died in France, in a crash in a Paris tunnel.
His initial disbelief turned to unimaginable grief, but it was decided he should continue as normal. Just four days after her funeral he was back at school, noticeably quieter and less boisterous than before.
Growing up in the public eye Harry sometimes overstepped the mark, most infamously when he wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005. After a photo was leaked he immediately apologised.
Wharfe admitted: “He doesn’t always engage the brain before moving forward. He doesn’t think of repercussions.
“Harry had no intention of insulting the Jewish community. It wouldn’t have crossed his mind. Someone needed to say to him, ‘Sir, do you think this is a good idea?’ I would have said, ‘Harry, this is going to drop you in the s*** if you don’t mind me saying, Sir’.”
His actions did indeed land him in it – Moody reveals Harry spent the rest of the month at Charles’s Duchy Home Farm at Highgrove, mucking out the pigs.
Perhaps the discipline of Army life has been the making of Harry, though his youthful errors did not stop when he went to train at Sandhurst.
Harry was apologising again in 2009 after footage emerged in which he had referred to one fellow soldier as “our little friend” and another as a “raghead” on a training exercise in Cyprus three years earlier.
But James Wharton, an openly gay soldier who served with Harry twice, revealed the esteem in which the prince was held by military colleagues.
He said: “He’s a very good guy, and he’s a good leader. He took the time to be interested in people, and he’d remember what you told him.
“For example, in the 18 months between me first working with him in Windsor, and the second time in Canada, he remembered everything about me. He asked, ‘Are you still with that guy?’
“I was really blown away by the way he almost strips himself of his royal position when he puts his army uniform on. He becomes – even more than he should really – one of the lads.
“The boys adored him. They listened to him and would do anything he told them to do, and I think it’s because he is slightly left-field in his whole approach.”
Harry was immersed in further controversy in August 2012 when naked pictures emerged of Harry on holiday in Las Vegas.