As Prince George approaches his teenage years, the talk among royal circles is rife as to where the future king will head for his secondary education.

Perhaps the most obvious choice is his father’s alma mater Eton, which is of course just a short drive from their couple’s Adelaide Cottage home in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

But the Princess of Wales is said to be ‘heartbroken’ over Prince William ‘s decision to send Prince George to single-sex Eton College when he turns 13, a royal insider claimed.

The source told In Touch Weekl that Kate is ‘heartbroken’ at the idea of sending George away to a boarding school – as she was ‘horribly bullied at her first single-sex boarding school, and can’t bear the thought of George suffering through that’.

Speculation had grown in December that the Wales’s may snub Eton College in favour of Malborough College in Wiltshire, which was attended by Kate Middleton.

In October, the Princess of Wales was spotted visiting her old stomping ground Marlborough College.

‘Catherine was here the other day. It’s been the talk of the school,’ a source told Daily Mail’s Richard Eden at the time. 

The Wiltshire boarding school, is where both Kate and her siblings James and Pippa attended, and is said to have transformed the future Queen from a ‘shy bullied girl’ to a ‘hockey captain that snagged a Prince’. So it’s obvious why Kate would want her children to follow in her footsteps there. 

There is certainly a royal track record there. Princess Eugenie and Captain Mark Philips are fellow Old Marlburians – and going to Marlborough will mean Princess Charlotte will be able to attend the same school as her older brother.

While it’s still two years away, many of the top public schools begin their selection process in Year 6, the school year George began in September.

Both George, Charlotte and their younger brother Prince Louis are currently at the £50,000 a year Lambrook School in Bracknell. It’s believed that Kate is particularly keen on keeping the children together.

This wouldn’t be possible of course if George were to instead head to Eton – which only accepts boys – although Provost Lord (William) Waldegrave, told Daily Mail’s Richard Kay last year that the school will go ‘co-ed in due course’.

When King Charles sent Princes William and Harry to Eton, it was seen in a break of tradition.  

Although Eton has become the epitome of the establishment, with 20 Prime Ministers attending,  Charles and Diana sending the young princes there was a break from tradition, as typically royal male heirs were sent to Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun – where  Charles and his father Prince Philip both attended.

Charles described the school as ‘Colditz with kilts’ and ‘a prison sentence’. 

So, could Kate follow suit and send her children to a different school again?

The future queen is very fond of her days at Malrborough. Since it was founded in 1843 for the purpose of educating the sons of clergymen, the £42,930-per-year Marlborough College has seen many future famous faces walk through its doors.

Artist William Morris, the poets John Betjeman and Siegfried Sassoon, and Samantha Cameron and funnyman Jack Whitehall have all passed through the hallowed halls. 

And in 1996 – seven years after it became fully co-educational, having previously only admitted girls in the sixth form – it welcomed a princess-in-waiting, even if few might have guessed it at first.

The then 14-year-old Kate Middleton arrived in Marlborough, Wiltshire as a shy and lanky teen, having moved after enduring alleged bullying at her previous school, Downe House in Berkshire.

It would prove to be an entrée into a world which would eventually see her rubbing shoulders with a notably privileged group of students and see her secure a place at the ancient St Andrews University – where Prince William happened to be studying.

Such a trajectory seemed unlikely when she first arrived in rural Wiltshire, however.

‘She had very little confidence,’ previously recalled her dorm mate Gemma Williamson, who described the new arrival who joined in the middle of the year as ‘thin and pale’. 

Kate’s house tutor Joan Gall has also said she was suffering from eczema due to stress. 

‘When she arrived she was very quiet. Coming into a big school like Marlborough was difficult, but she settled in quickly.’ Miss Gall previously said: ‘It was like a big, happy family. We would do things like bake cakes and watch videos.’ 

Certainly, the girl who would go on to become a celebrated royal beauty did not initially catch the eye of male pupils, who would crudely give passing girls a score out of ten as they made their way to supper. Kate was given a mere two.

Yet during her four years at Marlborough the future Princess of Wales blossomed into a beautiful, sought after young woman as well as an accomplished one who excelled at hockey and who would go on to become co-captain of the tennis team.

In fact, unlike her time at Downe House, Kate felt at home from the start of her time at Marlborough, where she joined the school’s cosy all-girls boarding house, Elmhurst.

Contemporaries recall her as the perfect pupil, listening to her Walkman, watching Friends and indulging in Marmite sandwiches.

Meanwhile, housemistress Ann Patching recalled her former pupil’s love of lasagne and pasta bakes but said that Kate ‘always stayed very slim’. 

Naturally kind-hearted, she quickly gained a close circle of friends, among them her peers on the hockey team, one of whom accompanied her on a trip to Ibiza to recover from her heartbreak after she briefly broke up with Prince William in 2007. 

Unfazed by her popularity however, she remained a responsible role model and was never caught with illicit booze unlike her friends, one of whom once confided: ‘A group of us used to sneak off to Reading to go drinking but she would never join us.’ 

In fact, Kate was only charged with one lapse in good behaviour when she threw up on the train home after an all-night champagne and dance party hosted by a member of her hockey team.

It was after a hockey tour to Argentina, friends recall – followed by a family trip to the Caribbean – that a then 16-year-old Kate returned to the school sixth form newly transformed.

‘She was an absolute beauty,’ according to friend Gemma, who says boys now ‘fancied her rotten.’

Among them was the comedian Jack Whitehall, who attended Marlborough a few years below Kate and who admitted in an interview that she was his first crush.

He later joked of being jealous of the attention the princess received from the school, venting: ‘I went to the same secondary school as Kate Middleton and she’s someone they like to talk about.

‘I’ve been sending them a letter each year saying maybe now it’s time to put me in the school prospectus or on the walls. I feel like I’m their dirty little secret.’

Nonetheless, despite becoming a favoured among the boys, the princess did not have lengthy dalliances with the opposite sex.

‘I got the distinct impression that Catherine wanted to save herself for someone special,’ said Gemma previously.

Her first kiss is believed to have been with Woody, the elder brother of Alice St John Webster – one of Kate’s closest friends. 

She also reportedly had a brief romance with Harry Blakelock, captain of the rugby team, which fizzled out after he left school, leaving Kate ‘heartbroken’.

There’s no question that Kate made quite an impact on her school, later hailed as ‘Person most likely to be loved by everybody’ in her yearbook when she departed on her gap year before heading to University of St Andrews after achieving two As and a B in her A Levels.

By then she had been followed to Marlborough by her younger sister Pippa who, untainted by earlier experiences of bullying, was seen by contemporaries as the more naturally confident half of the Middleton pair.

She enrolled at the same boarding house as her older sister, and joined the hockey team, yet there was little in the way of sibling rivalry according to contemporaries.

In fact, along with friend Alice St John Webster they are remembered as a tight trio.

‘Alice, Pippa and Kate were a very tight group and all best friends from the age of 14 upwards. It could be a bit suffocating. They did everything together,’ one friend said.

Riding a wave of success in the sporting and social spheres at prep school, Pippa won an all-rounder scholarship to Marlborough and became captain of the hockey team.

Unlike Kate’s meek start at the college, Pippa took every opportunity to make an impression at the school, with one contemporary saying: ‘Pippa was slightly tough and, back then, the one with the charisma. No one would ever think of bullying her.’

She was given the unfortunate nickname ‘pan face’ because of her supposed flat features but was not put off trying to impress her male peers, even when playing sport.

‘My focus is on winning and making sure that my hair — fashioned into a slick Sporty Spice “up do” — is just right. Did I mention boys watching?’ she wrote in the Spectator.

Seen as the ‘alpha’ sister in contrast to ‘kind-hearted, home-loving’ Kate, Pippa ‘loved being the centre of attention’ according to one contemporary.

She was chatty, funny and louder than her sister but, despite her sociable nature, she followed Kate’s example of dodging drinking and smoking.

Housemistress Ann Patching later described the relationship between the well behaved pair saying: ‘Pippa was good at everything and sharper academically, but I don’t think Catherine ever resented that.’

Twenty three years after Kate departed for the last time meanwhile, there is no question that the school – with its serene setting amid two lakes, and boasting a competition swimming pool, cricket pavilion and international-standard athletics track – remains a popular destination for well-heeled parents. 

According to the Which school guide, competition for places at the school increased after it became known as the alma mater of the Princess of Wales.

Nor has it stopped it being mired in the occasional scandal. 

In 2016, some of the older pupils brought in a stripper to perform on the grounds, an act later branded ‘inappropriate’ by the school.

The boarding school was also criticised last year for not carrying out necessary safeguarding checks on teachers, after an Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) report revealed that checks including barred lists for prior criminal offences were not completed.

A spokesperson for the school said at the time: ‘Since our compliance inspection, the college has upgraded the record-keeping processes highlighted in the ISI report.

‘We have been keeping our parents informed and are looking forward to an early re-inspection.’

None of this is likely to deter the wealthy elite, many of whom will doubtless be anxious for their own offspring to attend a school that prepped the Princess of Wales for her royal calling – and if rumour has it, may also be set to educate her offspring.

‘

By Melody Fletcher

Published: 06:29 EST, January 6, 2024 | Updated: 07:06 EST, January 6, 2024

It has an illustrious reputation for educating the elite – including Princes William and Harry – but Eton College may not be able to count Prince George among its future students.

There is growing speculation that the second in line to the throne will instead follow in his mother’s footsteps and attend Marlborough College in Wiltshire.

The Princess of Wales recently toured the £47,000-a-year co-educational school for the second time in as many months – this time accompanied by her husband and ten-year-old George.

Kate is said to be not a fan of single-sex schools such as Eton and is said to ‘absolutely hate’ her time at Downe House, a girls’ boarding school in Berkshire, where she was reportedly targeted by bullies.

However, she thrived at Marlborough, where she excelled academically and performed well in sports including hockey and tennis.

While it’s understood no final decision has been made on which school George will attend, the princess took him and William to her alma mater on December 1, after visiting alone earlier in October.

They also all toured Eton in June. The college, a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle, provided a refuge for William and Harry, who boarded there during the most turbulent years of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage.

But while William found solace there after his mother’s death, Harry complained in his memoir Spare that it was not the right choice for him.

George currently attends co-educational Lambrook preparatory school with his eight-year-old sister Princess Charlotte and five-year-old brother Prince Louis. Close to their Middleton grandparents’ home, it educates pupils up to the age of 13, meaning George will have to move in 2026.

But if he continues at a co-educational school like Marlborough, he could be joined by his siblings later. The Princess of Wales received a similar education alongside her younger sister, Pippa, and brother James.

Founded in 1843, Marlborough’s alumni include Princess Eugenie, Lady (Samantha) Cameron and comedian Jack Whitehall.

Prince George started at Lambrook last year and is currently in Year 6. He has recently completed exams that could affect his future education.

In October, Kate revealed she had helped him prepare, telling pupils at a Cardiff secondary school: ‘George is only at the start of his test. He says, “Mom, I’m being tested all the time.”

Last month, the princess missed Prince William’s Earthshot Prize ceremony in Singapore to further support George during his exams.

On the same day as the visit to Marlborough College, the trio enjoyed a quiet lunch at Tray’s Cafe in nearby Barrs Yard in Hungerford, with their security staff hovering nearby. A worker at the cafe, a 15-minute drive from the school, told The Mail on Sunday that the Waleses were ‘extremely delightful’ and ‘couldn’t have been nicer’.

Both Eton and Marlborough have similar application processes with assessments and interviews starting when students are George’s age.

Kensington Palace declined to comment last night.

When Prince George was recently spotted on the campus of Britain’s most prestigious private school, royal fans were quickly wondering if he might be about to follow in his father’s footsteps. 

Although the nine-year-old currently attends Berkshire’s Lambrook prep school, it is thought he will eventually transfer to Eton, where Prince William spent five happy years from the age of 13. 

Enrolling in 1995, William was the first senior member of the Royal Family to attend the historic school, and was joined by his brother Prince Harry in 1998. 

He went on to captain the swimming team and his house football squad and also took up water polo, as well as being a dab hand in the kitchen – as photos of him making paella during a cooking class proved. 

The decision to send William and Harry to Eton ran against recent royal tradition, which had seen both their father King Charles, grandfather Prince Philip and uncles Prince Edward and Prince Andrew attend Gordonstoun in Scotland. 

However, members of the Spencer family, including the late Princess Diana’s father and brother, went to Eton. 

For his first day of school on September 6, 1995, Prince William was accompanied by his parents and younger brother for a photo call as they were shown around by Andrew Gailey, Prince William’s housemaster.

Another snapshot from the same day showed William signing a book before he began his classes – a tradition that all students follow – with Charles and Diana proudly looking over his shoulder.  

Photos from the young royal’s big day showed Prince Harry walking hand-in-hand with Princess Diana as they dropped William off to his new lodgings – where Harry would follow his older brother three years later.

William had come from Ludgrove School, also in Berkshire. Whilst there, he was famously hit on the forehead by a golf club being wielded by a fellow pupil.

The heir to the throne needed treatment for a fractured skull and was operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital. 

Fortunately, William endured no similar accidents while at Eton, where he was enrolled in the prestigious Manor House, which counts the Duke of Wellington among its alumni.

For his first day of classes, William happily smiled for the cameras in his traditional Eton uniform, which consisted of a tailcoat, waistcoat, and pin-striped trousers.

These would be the only photographs of the young prince during his first year at Eton, so as to give him as much privacy as possible during his studies. 

The 13-year-old Prince began Eton just three years after Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s divorce, and according to a royal expert, the experiences left him ’emotional’, which led to the late Queen Elizabeth stepping in to support her grandson.

Robert Lacey, the author of ‘Battle of Brothers’, claimed the Queen ‘intervened’ with William during Diana and Charles’ divorce and the years following. 

Speaking to People magazine, Mr Lacey explained how the young royal would often have lunches with the Queen and would visit on the weekends when other pupils returned home from school.

During his visits to the nearby Windsor Castle, it was reported that William and his grandmother discussed state boxes and the constitutional duties he would carry out as King. 

The author added how the regular meetings between William and the Queen were Prince Philip’s idea.

During his senior year at Eton, Prince William was one of 21 elected members of a prestigious prefect society, with members known as ‘Pop’.

The young royal was also incredibly active, a trait that he has kept up as a working royal.

As well as his roles leading the swimming and football teams, he also reportedly took up water polo.

In 1999, both William and Prince Harry took part in the traditional Eton boys Tea Party at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park.

There they had tea with King Charles and the late Queen and Prince Philip. Although Harry was seen sitting with them, William is reported to have remained with his friends. 

Although William was not photographed much during his time at the school, on his 18th birthday fans were treated to pictures of the royal inside his student home.

Pictures showed William looking at a computer at his personal desk, while others featured the royal making a chicken paella for a cooking class in the school’s communal kitchen.

Another of the photos showed the 18-year-old posing for a portrait on his birthday, wearing a Union Jack vest with the words ‘Groovy Baby’ across the bottom.

William finished his time at Eton with three A Levels, an A in Geography, a B in History of Art and a C in Biology.

He then enjoyed a gap year, during which he took part in British Army training exercises in Belize and visited Africa.

In 2001, William enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Scotland where he studied a course in Art History, but later changed his chosen subject to Geography.

It was at St Andrews where he met his wife the Princess of Wales, who was studying Art History.  

Currently, Eton College lists its tuition fees as £15,432 per half – with ‘half’ meaning ‘term’, meaning it costs wealthy parents more than £46,000 a year to send their child there. 

Eton’s political alumni include David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne.

Princess Charlotte could make history as one of the first ever girls to attend Eton College if the school goes co-ed.

Prince George, nine, was reportedly spotted last week checking out the boarding school where he could soon become a student, along with his parents Prince William and Princess Kate, both 41.

Sources close to the couple have previously said they don’t want their children to attend segregated schools – indicating eight-year-old Charlotte might be able to follow in her big brother’s footsteps if the school decides to admit girls within five years.

Although the school only takes pupils from the age of 13 (Year 9), students wishing to attend the £45,000-a-year school which has trained 20 Prime Ministers must be registered by the time they finish Year 5 (Age 10).

It comes after word got out that the Berkshire boarding school would consider girls to join for the first time in its 600-year history.

Eton’s Provost Lord (William) Waldegrave, told the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay last year that the school will become ‘co-ed in due course’.

‘Each year the governors of Eton consider whether Eton should become a student.

And we’re not quite there. But eventually we will of course go co-ed.’

Lord Waldegrave, 77, is the brother of Lady Susan Hussey, right-hand man to the late Queen Elizabeth, and has served as Provost or Chair of Eton’s governing body since 2009.

However, the former Tory grandee will soon be stepping down after 14 years as Provost – or Chairman of the Governors.

By the time Prince George arrives, a new man – or possibly a woman – will be in the post.

Lord Waldegrave made the remarks at a reunion dinner at Eton for those who left in 1983.

Intriguingly, this included a small group of ‘Old Etoniennes’ – about 16 women who attended the school for just one semester, during which they prepared for the exam which was then taken by anyone hoping to enter the universities of Oxford or Cambridge.

Prince William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, 38, were both high school students at Eton College, where William enrolled in 1995.

Currently, Eton College lists tuition fees as £15,432 per half – where ‘half’ means ‘term’ and three terms in the school year.

This works out to £46,296 a year for tuition fees at the prestigious school, whose alumni include David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne.

After moving to Windsor last year, the Welsh children all attend Lambrook Primary School in Berkshire, just ten minutes’ drive from their new home, Adelaide Cottage.

Lambrook boasts ‘first-class teaching and excellent facilities’, including a 25-metre swimming pool, nine-hole golf course, artificial turf, clay courts, squash court, cricket and other sports fields.

The fees cost £4,389 per semester for Year 2 pupils such as Louis, £6,448 per semester for Years 3-4 such as Charlotte, and £6,999 per semester for George through Years 5-8, with an additional £ 1,481 per semester for boarding for Y3-8.

Famous alumni include the actor Alex Pettyfer, the sons of wartime Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and entrepreneur Giles Clarke, who founded Majestic Wine.

Prior to the move, Prince George and his little sister, Princess Charlotte, eight, attended Thomas’s preparatory school on Battersea High Street.

William is said to be ‘popular and happy’ at Eton, while the pair have recently moved to Windsor Castle, which is nearby, which would allow George to travel back at weekends.

One thing we have come to learn about Prince William is his absence of sentiment. The conventions that govern so much of Royal Family life have either been ignored or ruthlessly rejected by a prince who is determined to go his own way.

Nothing illustrates this more than the education of his children. None of the three schools William attended in his early years has featured when choosing where George, Charlotte and Louis would be educated.

So the reports yesterday that Prince George had been spotted on a tour of Eton have come as something of a surprise.

Many wondered if the second-in-line to the throne would continue the co-ed teaching he is currently receiving in the wide-open spaces of Lambrook prep, near Ascot, by spending his teenage years at Marlborough College — the mixed school where his mother, Kate, was so happy.

There is, of course, still plenty of time for other schools to feature. George is not yet ten and won’t be eligible for Eton until the autumn of 2026, when he will be 13.

There is also the far-from-simple matter of the entrance exam. William himself comfortably won a place at Eton after sitting Common Entrance in 1995 and achieving its tough 65 per cent pass rate.

His arrival that autumn represented a ground-breaking move for the monarchy, ending the tradition of sending royal children to Gordonstoun in the Scottish Highlands, where the then Prince Charles had been so miserable. Charles did admit, however, that the school had instilled him with self-discipline and a sense of responsibility.

William’s arrival at Eton also represented a rare moment of parental unity. At the time, Charles and Diana were in the middle of a separation that had grown increasingly ugly and bitter, with each taking pot-shots at the other. But when it came to their sons’ schooling, they managed to find common ground.

William was the first heir to the throne not to be taught by a governess at Buckingham Palace. Instead, he was sent first to a nursery and then as a day boy to Wetherby pre-prep in Notting Hill, with Diana doing the school-runs.

She was determined her son should eventually go to Eton, where both her father, Earl Spencer, and brother had been educated. Diana had fond memories of visiting her brother, Charles — then Viscount Althorp — during his schooldays, and taking him to tea in nearby Windsor.

Any reservations Prince Charles had were swiftly set aside because of his own troubled time at Gordonstoun, which he had labelled ‘Colditz in kilts’ — a witty reference to the forbidding World War II prison camp, Colditz Castle —where he had been bullied and was homesick.

William suffered neither of these at Eton, where he was both popular and happy. Indeed, the school was a refuge from the tumult surrounding his parents’ marital woes, and later shielded him in the aftermath of the tragedy of Diana’s death.

All the same, it is intriguing that with such mixed memories, and having deliberately chosen different schools for his children so far, William appears to want George to follow in his footsteps.

So what might be going on?

There are some compelling factors that could be influencing his decision.

His own experience of education is certainly one. William had impressive academic success: 12 GCSEs followed by three A-levels in geography, history of art and biology, which secured him a place at St Andrews University.

He forged a series of close friendships that endure to this day and, like his father’s more gruelling experience in Scotland, it instilled in him a resilience that has served him well. Eton also gave William a taste for independence and privacy that is difficult to find for young royals, whose lives are so often under the spotlight.

And there was one other aspect to his time there that helped to shape him. Eton’s proximity to Windsor Castle allowed him to spend precious time with his grandmother, the late Queen.

The two would often meet for tea in her private apartments, and these occasions became vital staging posts not just on his road to maturity but also in his education in the role of the monarchy.Might William be hoping that, in time, King Charles will offer his grandson the same kind of tutorials he enjoyed? Or could he and Kate even be planning to move into the Castle themselves? It is entirely possible.

The King adores his grandfatherly duties and would love to introduce his young heir to royal history and even an appreciation of Windsor Castle’s treasure-trove of art, just as his grandmother, the late Queen Mother, did for him more than 60 years ago.

Then there is also reassuring familiarity. Many of William and Kate’s friends will be sending their sons to Eton. Its proximity to the family home in the castle grounds could be another draw.

By all accounts George is already engaged by the rhythms of school life. At Thomas’s, his previous school in Battersea, he was a model pupil, regularly receiving its ‘golden unicorn’ prizes for class and homework.

He is said to have a sweet but sensitive nature. Some boys find life at Eton — with 1,350 pupils — hard to adjust to.

In any event, the Eton that may welcome him in three years’ time will be a very different institution to the school his father left in 2000. The number of international students has increased since then, while there are fewer pupils from aristocratic families.

It is, though, highly competitive with an emphasis on excellence both on the sporting field and in the classroom.

Soon, too, there will be a change at the top. Former Tory grandee Lord Waldegrave is standing down after 14 years as Provost — or chairman of the governors.

A new man — or possibly a woman, will be in post by the time Prince George arrives.

Some things don’t change, though. The uniform of tailcoat, stiff collar and white tie remains the same, as do the bragging rights for attending the world’s most famous school.

Then there are the huge fees. When William started, it cost his father £4,133 a term. Today the fees are an eye-watering £14,432 a term and if school inflation is anything to go by, they could easily reach £16,000 by 2026.

Young George Wales, as he will be known, will also have to master the ‘colours test’, as his father and uncle Prince Harry had to in their first weeks as new boys.

This encompasses a knowledge of the geography of the school, including its arcane terminology — teachers, for example, are known as ‘beaks’ — local landmarks and the colours of the various sports teams and houses.

He will certainly be expected to have a better grasp of Eton history than his uncle. In his memoir, Spare, Harry claimed Eton College was founded by ‘my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’ King Henry VI. In fact, Henry VI’s only son died childless in 1471, ending any direct lineage. William’s first day in 1995 began with a photocall with his separated parents in a show of solidarity, with brother Harry watching on. A three-tier scaffolding stage was erected opposite Manor House, where William was to live as a boarder, to allow the media a one-off view of the new Etonian.

The following day the cameras were invited back as William, this time without his parents, was photographed heading to lessons in his new uniform.

To begin with, the young prince was in a single room with a stow-away metal bed that he had to make and fold against the wall before 8am breakfast. There was a desk — known in Eton parlance as a ‘burry’ — with a lamp, a chair, an ottoman or chest for his games clothes, and a rug from home.

A white laundry bag, hung from a hook on the door, was emptied weekly by a ‘boys’ maid’. There was no television, and a radio was not permitted until William was in the sixth form.

Manor House was then known as Gailey’s after its then-master Dr Andrew Gailey, who was an influential figure throughout William’s time at the school. He also advised the prince on his university and degree choices.

Charles and Diana chose the softly spoken Ulsterman to be their son’s housemaster, having met him and his wife, Shauna, for tea. Like Charles, Dr Gailey shared a passionate interest in history. Not long after arriving at Eton in 1983, Dr Gailey published a critically acclaimed account of his troubled native province, called Ireland And The Death Of Kindness.

However, in entrusting him with their son’s future, it was the man that the prince and princess admired as much as the academic.

The couple had considered two other great public schools, Rugby and Radley, for William. But Eton, where Charles’s old Gordonstoun teacher Dr Eric Anderson had been a former headmaster, was always favourite.

Charles interrupted a royal tour of Australia to have dinner with Anderson’s successor, New Zealander Dr John Lewis. No doubt it helped that Lewis had been a master at Geelong Grammar, the Australian academy where the prince had spent an unforgettably joyous six months in the 1960s.

Lewis and Anderson had both recommended Dr Gailey as ‘young, bright and a real livewire’.

William will be looking for a similar endorsement when it comes to choosing George’s housemaster.

Before that day dawns, however, there are other obstacles to overcome. George’s first will be this coming autumn when he will need to sit a computerised ‘pre-test’ in English, maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

Then, next year, he would sit another online test to assess his potential and an interview.

If successful, he will then receive a conditional offer which will depend on the result of the Common Entrance exam he will sit in his final prep school year.

William emerged from Eton a confident young man. His brother, however, found the environment academically challenging, and there was controversy when a teacher claimed he had cheated in his art A-level.

The exam board subsequently cleared Harry of any wrongdoing, but the scandal tarnished the reputations of both the prince and Eton. But that was 20 years ago.

Perhaps reassuringly, George is every inch his father’s son.

Is Prince George going to Eton? Prince and Princess of Wales ‘spotted on campus of prestigious boarding school with their 9-year-old son’

By Jessica Taylor for Mailonline

published: 09:50 EDT, June 22, 2023 | Updated: 11:59 EDT, Jun 22, 2023