William and Harry by Katie Nicholl Read Free Book Online

dorm-mates to join him. Charles had once remarked that his younger son was the one ‘with the more gentle nature’, but in his final year at Wetherby, once William had left, Harry had come out of his shell. He was more talkative and confident in class, and at home his parents noticed a change in the brothers’ characters. William, who was deeply affected by the breakdown of his parents’ marriage because he was more aware of what was going on, had become quieter and more sensitive. He preferred to curl up on the sofa and watch movies with his mother, while Harry would be in the paddock showing off his latest tricks on his pony Smokey. He had grown into an accomplished horseman, and Marion Cox, who had taught both boys to ride from the age of two, had long dispensed with her rein. Now Harry was cantering and jumping fences, and it was not just on horseback that he was beginning to emerge as a daredevil. When their mother took them skiing to Lech during a half-term vacation in March 1991, it was Harry, then only six, who was the first to race down the slopes with his instructor.
    When he arrived at Ludgrove, the troublesome streak that would later see him crowned the rebel of the family began to emerge. While William had grown out of childish pranks and immersed himself in his studies, Harry earned a reputation for being the class clown. One former pupil recalled that his favourite trick involved using a ruler to remove the contents of his unsuspectingvictim’s pocket or pencil case. The prince would watch in glee as the classmate fumbled around trying to find the missing items, which were always returned with an impish grin at the end of the lesson. When Charles and Diana came to visit him at Ludgrove for his first sports day, Harry decided to get his own back on the photographers who had gathered on the public footpath ahead of his parents’ arrival. At his instigation, four school leavers mooned at the press, some of who were hiding in the undergrowth. ‘Harry didn’t actually moon at anyone. He dared the school leavers to do it and they did,’ recalled one school contemporary. ‘He didn’t want to get caught. I do remember that he wasn’t very flattering about the photographers. He was very aware of them and didn’t like them being there.’
    On Sunday evenings when it was time to go back to school, Harry couldn’t wait. William was reluctant to leave his mother alone in the palace, but Harry had already packed his bags and was desperate to see his friends at Ludgrove, where he would be rewarded with a Cremola Foam, which was similar to a cream soda with ice cream in it and served to all the returning boys. Sunday nights were also typically when Harry and his friends would instigate dorm raids, but on one occasion, not realising his own strength, Harry sent a victim crashing to the floor as he jumped from bed to bed. Hearing the child’s wails, the housemaster burst into the dormitory and switched on the lights. While the boy was taken to the school nurse for a check-up, Harry was taken aside for a stern talking-to. When his friend’s concerned mother came up to the school the next day, the prince was made to apologise.
    ‘Harry wasn’t given any special treatment and neither wasWilliam, which is probably why they liked it so much,’ one of their friends recalled. There were, however, occasions when the boys were granted certain privileges, and when their father announced that he had tickets for the FA Cup final in May 1995 they were allowed special leave. Everton won, and the boys returned to Ludgrove dressed in the winning team’s kit with a signed football. ‘They kept us all up way past lights out that night,’ recalled one of their friends. ‘It was so exciting and we wanted to know every detail of the day over and over again.’ Their privileges won them more friends than foes, and when the alarms at the nearby Broadmoor High Security Hospital were tested, Harry would assure his friends,