Prince Harry, or Prince Henry of Wales, was born as Henry
Charles Albert David. Harry was born on 15 September 1984. He is commonly known
as Prince Harry, and is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and his first
wife, the late Diana, Princess of Wales. A grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, he
is third in the line of succession to the thrones of the United Kingdom and the
other fifteen Commonwealth realms, behind his father and his older brother, Prince
William.
Prince Harry holds the rank of Second Lieutenant (known in the regiment as
Cornet) in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry of the British
Army. He was a tank commander, trained to lead a 12-man team in four armoured
reconnaissance vehicles. After the decision not to send him to Iraq, he retrained
as a battlefield air controller, the job he has been filling in Afghanistan.
He is currently serving on the front line in Afghanistan.
Prince Harry's full title is His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales, although
he is commonly referred to as Prince Harry. Like his brother William, Prince
Harry uses "Wales" in place of a surname when required.
Prince Harry was born on 15 September 1984, at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington,
in central London, England, and was christened on 21 December of the same year
at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.
Robert Runcie. His godparents were his uncle, the Duke of York; Lady Sarah Chatto;
Lady Vestey; Mrs. William Bartholomew; the portrait painter, Mr. Bryan Organ;
and Mr. Gerald Ward.
Prince Harry attended Mrs. Jane Mynors's nursery school in West London, as did William.
He later followed his brother to the Wetherby School, and later to Ludgrove
School in Berkshire. He then attended Eton College located in Berkshire in 1998.
In June 2003, he completed his education at Eton with two A-levels obtaining
a B in Art and a D in Geography. At school, he developed his love of sport,
particularly polo and rugby union. The Prince has shown a keen interest in abseiling.
He has also participated in the Eton Wall Game.
After finishing Eton, Harry undertook a gap year, visiting Australia and Africa.
In Australia, he, like his father before him, worked on a cattle station, and
watched the 2003 Rugby World Cup being held in the country. In Africa, he worked
in an orphanage in Lesotho. Later in the year, he travelled to Argentina on
holiday.
On 8 May 2005, the Prince entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. There,
he was known as Officer Cadet Wales instead of using his royal title, and was
part of Alamein Company.
As a serving soldier, Prince Harry currently has no official Royal Engagements.
However, at the age of 21, and as third in line to the throne, he became eligible
to serve as a Counsellor of State (first filling this role in 2005 when the
Queen was on a state visit to Malta).
In April 2006, Prince Harry launched a charity with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho
to aid children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The charity is named Sentebale: The Princes'
Fund for Lesotho; the name, Sentebale being a Sesotho word meaning forget-me-not,
is meant to honour both princes' mothers: the Princess of Wales, who died in
1997; and Queen 'MaMohato of Lesotho, who died in 2003. Prince Harry was in
Lesotho to launch the charity and to make a return visit to Mants'ase Children's
Home near Mohale's Hoek, which he visited in 2004 during his gap year.
Along with his elder brother, Prince Harry spearheaded the Concert for Diana at Wembley
Stadium, on 1 July 2007. Attended by 63,000 people, and broadcast in 140 countries,
the concert raised funds for charities such as the Diana, Princess of Wales
Memorial Fund, Centrepoint and Prince Harry's own Sentebale.
As with any member of the Royal Family, Prince Harry is expected to take up
honorary positions as patron, president or chancellor of charitable or academic
institutions throughout the Commonwealth Realms. Prince Harry is currently patron
of: * WellChild; *
Sentebale; * Dolen Cymru; *
MapAction.
Prince Harry passed out as a newly commissioned officer at the Sovereign's
Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in April, 2006. Currently ranked
as a Lieutenant, he uses Wales as his surname, and is known in the army as Troop
Commander Wales. The following month Prince Harry joined the Blues and Royals,
a regiment of the Household Cavalry in the British Army, followed by training
as a tank reconnaissance troop commander. That year Prince Harry was also appointed
as one of nine new Commodores-in-Chief of the Royal Navy, alongside other members
of his family, being appointed as Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving.
On 22 February 2007, the Ministry of Defence and Clarence House made a joint
statement that Prince Harry would be deployed with his regiment in Iraq, to
serve as part of the 1st Mechanised Brigade of the 3rd (UK) Mechanised Division,
although this decision was later rescinded. The last member of the Royal Family
to serve in a war zone was Prince Harry's uncle, Prince Andrew, Duke of York,
who flew helicopters during the Falklands War in 1982. At the time, Prince Andrew
was second in line to the thrones of the Commonwealth Realms, although this
changed to third on the 21 June 1982, the birthday of Prince William and the
day after the British Government declared hostilities to be over. According
to a BBC news article, Prince Harry had made it clear that he would leave the
army if he was left in safety while his regiment was sent to a war zone.
The head of the British army, General Richard Dannatt, first said on 30 April
2007 that he had personally decided that the Prince will serve with his unit
in Iraq. The Ministry of Defence had been considering whether the Prince should
be exposed to a combat situation; concerns included the Prince 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 his life or capture. However, families of serving soldiers have expressed
concern over any decision which would exempt Prince Harry from active service
in Iraq. The Prince has been quoted as saying "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." Although friends of the Prince have
indicated that he would be "disappointed" if he were not allowed to
go, they are also quoted as saying he would not resign from the army in protest.
Harry was scheduled to leave for Iraq in May or June 2007, with the regiment
becoming responsible for patrolling the Maysan province, trying to stop Iranian
smugglers bringing hi-tech weapons across the border of desert and marshes.
The province, known to Coalition forces as Iraq’s "Wild West",
has been described as "a dangerous wilderness that is being used by Iraq's
Shia extremist groups as a testing ground for their latest explosive devices."
On 16 May 2007, Dannatt, contrary to his previous remarks, announced "I
have decided today that Prince Harry will not be deployed to Iraq." Clarence
House subsequently issued a statement that "Prince Harry is very disappointed
that he will not be able to go to Iraq with his troop on this deployment, as
he had hoped. He fully understands and accepts General Dannatt’s difficult
decision, and remains committed to his Army career. Prince Harry’s thoughts
are with his troop and the rest of the Battle Group in Iraq."
In May 2007 British soldiers in Iraq were reported to be wearing t-shirts bearing
the statement "I'm Harry!": an obvious 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!"
By early June, it was being reported that Prince Harry, third in line to the
Canadian Throne, had arrived in Canada to train, along with other soldiers of
the Canadian and British Armies, at CFB Suffield, near Medicine Hat, Alberta,
for a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
On February 28, 2008, the Ministry of Defence stated that Prince Harry had
secretly been deployed to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, in the notorious
Helmand Province as a Forward Air Controller. The Ministry of Defence had a
deal with the media of the United Kingdom running to keep his whereabouts secret.
The German newspaper Bild and the Australian magazine New Idea were the first
to report the story on January 7 2008, followed by the American website The
Drudge Report on February 28, leading to the confirmation by the British Ministry
of Defence. According to reports, the prince's combat tour in Afghanistan began
on December 14, 2007. Reports have also revealed that by February 29, 2008,
the prince had killed up to thirty Taliban terrorist insurgents by directing
at least three air strikes.
The media continue to speculate about any and all of Prince Harry's possible
girlfriends. The Prince's best known romance has been with Chelsy Davy, a Zimbabwe-born
white African heiress to an African ranching and real estate fortune. In an
interview conducted for his 21st birthday in September 2005, Prince Harry referred
to Davy as his girlfriend and the press reported that their relationship was
at that time 18 months old, strongly contradicting reports they were no longer
a couple. In July 2006, photos were published of the two kissing at the Cartier
Polo International Tournament, and by October that year it was reported that
Davy had accepted an offer from the University of Bristol, which is 27 miles
(43 km) from Highgrove, to study for a postgraduate degree in politics. Harry
and Chelsy Davy were both seen together publicly at the Concert for Diana. On
10 November 2007 reports came out that Chelsy Davy ended her and the Prince's
three year relationship, citing frustration with his "playboy lifestyle
and lack of commitment".
At a party with the fancy dress theme "Colonial and Native", Prince
Harry wore a swastika armband, causing controversy and considerable embarrassment
to his family. He later issued a public statement apologizing for his actions,
but his lack of apology in person angered some groups. Harry's impromptu costume
did not resemble the Third Reich, such as the SS or the armed forces but rather
the Afrika Korps.
Prince Harry was questioned over the shooting of two hen harriers (a protected
species) whilst he was at the Queen's private residence, Sandringham, in October
2007. Two walkers and a warden at a nearby nature reserve said that they had
seen the birds being shot on 24 October, but could not see who fired the shots
as trees obscured their view. The carcasses of the birds were not found. Harry
was eventually cleared of all accusations.
Titles, Styles, Honours and Arms
Titles and Styles
* 15 September 1984–present: His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales
Prince Harry is currently third-in-line for succession to the Throne (behind
his father and elder brother). Should he succeed to the throne and keep his
first Christian name, he would probably be known as Henry IX. Henry Benedict
Stuart is sometimes known by this title by supporters of the Jacobites, but
he never attempted to seize the throne and is not listed in the official chronology
of the rulers of England.
Honours
Honorary military appointments
* 2006–present: Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving
Arms
On his 18th birthday, his grandmother, Elizabeth II, granted Prince Harry his
own personalised coat of arms, the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with
a label for difference: Quarterly, 1st and 4th Gules three Lions passant guardant
in pale Or (England), 2nd Or a Lion rampant within a Double Tressure flory counterflory
Gules (Scotland), 3rd Azure a Harp Or stringed Argent (Ireland), the whole differenced
by a Label of five points Argent the first third and fifth points charged with
an Escallop Gules.
Prince Harry's coat of arms has a label of five points, as the grandchild of
the sovereign. The escallops (seashells) allude to his late mother Diana, Princess
of Wales, whose Spencer coat of arms includes three escallops argent.
Ancestry of Prince Harry
|
Prince Henry of Wales
House of Windsor
Cadet branch of the
House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
Born:
15 September 1984
|
British
Royalty
|
Preceded by
Prince William of Wales |
Line of succession
to the British Throne
3rd position |
Succeeded by
Prince Andrew, Duke of York |
| Order of
precedence in the United Kingdom |
Preceded by
Prince William of Wales |
Gentlemen |
Succeeded by
Viscount Severn |
Preceded by
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex |
Gentlemen
in current practice |
| Order of precedence |
Preceded by
Prince William of Wales |
Canadian order of precedence |
Succeeded by
Viscount Severn |
