William, Prince of Wales

William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

William was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was educated at Wetherby School, Ludgrove School and Eton College. He earned a Master of Arts degree in geography at the University of St Andrews where he met his future wife, Catherine Middleton. They have three children: George, Charlotte and Louis.

After university, William trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst prior to serving with the Blues and Royals. In 2008, he graduated from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, joining the RAF Search and Rescue Force in early 2009. He served as a full-time pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance for two years from July 2015.

William performs official duties and engagements on behalf of the monarch. He is patron of multiple charitable and military organisations, including the Tusk Trust, Centrepoint, The Passage, Wales Air Ambulance and London's Air Ambulance Charity. Through the Royal Foundation, his work focuses on mental health, conservation, homelessness, and emergency workers. In 2020, William launched the Earthshot Prize, an initiative to incentivise environmental solutions.

William was made Duke of Cambridge immediately before his wedding in April 2011. He became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay upon his father's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022. The following day he was made Prince of Wales.

Early life

William was born at 9:03 pm on 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London, during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was the first child of Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), and his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. He was the first direct heir to the British throne to be born in a hospital. Buckingham Palace announced his name – William Arthur Philip Louis – on 28 June. William was christened in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, on 4 August, coinciding with the 82nd birthday of his paternal great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

William was the first child born to a Prince and Princess of Wales since Prince John was born to Prince George and Princess Mary (later King George V and Queen Mary) in July 1905. When he was nine months old, William accompanied his parents on their 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand, as his first trip overseas. It also marked the first time that a royal baby was taken on an overseas tour. Family photographs of William and his parents on the grounds of Government House in Auckland, New Zealand, received significant global coverage, and have been identified as a major reason why the Buzzy Bee, the toy which William was playing with, became a New Zealand cultural icon.

His younger brother, Prince Harry, was born in September 1984. Both of them were raised at Kensington Palace in London, and Highgrove House in Gloucestershire.

Known informally as "Wills" within his family, William was nicknamed "Willy" by his brother and "Wombat" by his mother. Diana wished her sons to obtain broader and more typical life experiences beyond royal upbringing, taking them to Walt Disney World, McDonald's, AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless. The biographer Robert Lacey asserts that William, described as a "rambunctious" and "bratty" child, became "more reflective" with a "noticeably quiet character" as he began boarding school. Diana was reported to have described William as "my little wise old man" on whom she started to rely as her confidant by his early teens.

William carried out his first public engagement while accompanying his parents on a visit to Llandaff on Saint David's Day in 1991. He and Harry travelled to Canada on an official visit with their parents in 1991 and again with Charles in 1998. William's parents divorced in 1996. Diana died in a car accident in the early hours of 31 August 1997. William, then aged 15, together with his 12-year-old brother and their father, was staying at Balmoral Castle at the time. The following morning, Charles informed William and Harry of their mother's death. William was reportedly uncertain as to whether he should walk behind his mother's coffin during the funeral procession. His grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, told him: "If you don't walk, I think you'll regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?". At the funeral, William and Harry walked alongside their father, grandfather, and maternal uncle, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.

After his mother's death, William stated that he was "in a state of shock for many years". He and Harry inherited the majority of the £12.9 million left by their mother on their respective 30th birthdays, a figure that had grown to £10 million each by 2014. In 2014, the brothers inherited their mother's wedding dress along with many other of her personal possessions including dresses, diamond tiaras, jewels, letters and paintings. They also received the original lyrics and score of "Candle in the Wind" by Bernie Taupin and Elton John as performed by the latter at Diana's funeral. In 2002, The Times reported that William and Harry would also share £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother the Queen Mother on their respective 21st birthdays, as well as £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays.

Education

William was educated at private schools. He started at Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School (both in London) before continuing at Ludgrove School near Wokingham, Berkshire. At Ludgrove, William was active in sport before being admitted to Eton College, where he studied geography, biology, and history of art at A-Level. He also took part in several sports.

The decision to send William to Eton broke with royal tradition, as his father and grandfather had both attended Gordonstoun. The royal family and the press agreed William would be allowed to study free from media intrusion in exchange for periodic official updates. In June 1991, William was admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital after being accidentally hit on the forehead by a fellow pupil wielding a golf club. He suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and was operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital, resulting in a permanent scar. The incident received widespread media attention. After leaving Eton, William took a gap year. He joined British Army training exercises in Belize, worked on English dairy farms, and visited Africa. He also spent ten weeks in southern Chile with Raleigh International, taking part in community projects and teaching English.

In 2001, William enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Similar to his time at Eton, the media agreed not to invade his privacy, and students were warned not to leak stories to the press. William embarked on a degree course in art history but later changed his main subject to geography. He focused his dissertation on the Indian Ocean's Rodrigues coral reefs and graduated with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree with upper second class honours in 2005. While at university, he represented the Scottish national universities water polo team at the Celtic Nations tournament in 2004. He was reportedly known as "Steve" by other students to avoid any journalists realising his identity.

Early appointments and duties

At the age of 21, William became a Counsellor of State. In July 2005, he undertook his first solo public engagements on an overseas tour of New Zealand, travelling to participate in World War II commemorations. In 2009, the Queen set up a private office for William and Harry with David Manning as their adviser. Manning accompanied William on his first official tour in January 2010 as the latter toured Auckland and Wellington. The visit spurred crowds of "many thousands", with positive public reception compared to that of his mother's 1983 tour. In March 2011, William visited Christchurch, New Zealand, shortly after the earthquake, and spoke at the memorial service at Hagley Park on behalf of his grandmother. He also travelled to Australia to visit areas affected by flooding in Queensland and Victoria.

Before attending Sandhurst, William did a three-week internship at several institutions, including the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and Lloyd's of London. To prepare for his eventual management of the Duchy of Cornwall, in 2014, he entered St John's College, Cambridge to undertake an executive agriculture management degree run by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), of which his father is patron. In April 2019, Kensington Palace announced that William had completed a three-week internship at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, during which he was tasked with monitoring extreme Islamist terror cells, identifying potential threats abroad, and observing code breaking technology.