After literally three years of drama over Prince George’s education, it does feel like there’s been an effort to bury the fact that the Princess of Wales lost. She lost her long-running battle to send George to a co-ed school, and not only that, she lost the battle to keep George physically and emotionally close to the Middleton family. If George had ended up enrolling in co-ed Marlborough, it would have been a huge victory for Kate AND the Middletons. Instead, George will go to Eton, his father’s alma mater, and George will be pulled into the Windsor side of the family. Well, royal biographer Robert Jobson thinks Eton is the perfect choice for George, and all of the royalists seem happy that Kate didn’t get her way.
More than three decades ago, then aged 14, Prince William stood in front of the imposing red brick of Eton College, ready to embark on the first chapter of his teenage years. Just two years on from that moment, the future King was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, following his mother Princess Diana’s tragic death and the pain of his parents’ very public divorce. Now, he is 44, and his son Prince George – who is turning 13 next week – will be following in his academic footsteps as he enrolls at the prestigious secondary school this coming September. But the young heir will be worlds away from the emotional landscape his father William had to navigate, royal experts have said.
‘The difference is everything,’ commentator Robert Jobson told the Daily Mail. ‘William walked into Eton carrying his parents’ marital war. George walks in from a settled home. Two parents, together, who built him a base and guard it fiercely. Confidence is not taught. It is absorbed.’
He recounted the first time he saw a young Prince of Wales tackling the brave new world of teenagerhood all those years ago. Robert shared: ‘It was 6 September 1995. Eton College. I was there, a reporter outside Manor House, in the pack. Behind a steel barrier. A boy of thirteen came out with his mother and father to pose for pictures with his housemaster, Dr Andrew Gailey. He had signed the Entrance Book. Charles and Diana stood either side of him. They were separated by then. The divorce was a year away. Nobody standing there that morning knew what Gailey, a quiet Ulsterman, a historian, would become to that boy. A rock.’
‘Two years after that photocall, Diana was dead, and it was Gailey who took William under his wing, educationally and emotionally, and steadied him. The school became his sanctuary. It seems like yesterday. Time flies. That boy is now the Prince of Wales. His son, Prince George, turns 13 on 22 July and goes up to the same school for the Michaelmas Half.’
Robert explained that William and Kate have done everything and more to support their eldest son in the move, as George prepares for a new academic era.
‘He asked them if he could board weekly at Lambrook. They agreed. It helped him grow, to be part of a collective,’ the expert said. ‘He is smart. He loves history. Standing before Henry VIII’s armour last October, his father said it plainly. “George, my son, is way better in history than I am, and I have to check with him now on my dates.” He plays football and hockey. Hockey is his mother’s game. He supports Aston Villa, like his dad. Happy to cheer and punch the air in public. He has not been spared pain. He watched his mother fight and beat cancer. He watched his grandfather live with it. He has emerged steadier. Eton will be a challenge, but being close to home, in the shadow of Windsor Castle will help.’
‘As he steps out in his tailcoat, false collar, he will look a picture. But the environment will protect him like it did his father who thrived there. Then time. A great deal of it, let us hope, for George’s sake.’
It feels like Jobson is still blaming Diana for how William turned out. Please – Diana did what she could, and I feel strongly that if Charles had simply been a better husband and father, something like 90% of the Windsors’ issues would not exist today. Not to give William a pass – he had a crappy childhood, as did Prince Harry, but William is the very definition of “hurt people hurt people.” As for George… sure, his parents are not divorced. It’s not a moral issue, nor is indicative of how George will grow up in his teens. It also doesn’t mean that his family life is all sunshine and roses. I find it so interesting that they’ve retconned the “George boards at Lambrook” issue too. Soon we’ll hear that Charlotte boards all the time too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
