Harry’s Sandhurst humiliation: The Duke of Sussex is left out of the prestigious army book honoring the military college’s top alumni (but his brother Prince William takes the lead – and writes the foreword)
Prince Harry has been humiliated after being excluded from a prestigious book celebrating Sandhurst’s finest alumni, which has been branded snub by a top army commander.
The Duke of Sussex failed to get the top 200 people in the military academy to train at the Armed Forces Military College, despite his brother Prince William winning the prize and even writing the foreword for the exclusive guide.
Even James Blunt made it to the pages of They Also Served for his stint in the army in Kosovo before becoming a multi-million pound singer.
Instead, the California-based royal family joins other military outcasts such as fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and Benson Freeman who joined the Nazi Party to become a Waffen-SS officer.
The humiliating blow comes almost a year to the day after Duke Spare’s explosive memoir was released, in which he boasted of killing 25 Taliban fighters and explained that he saw those he killed as ‘chess pieces’ rather than people .
Prince Harry salutes after leaving Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in April 2006
Prince Harry completed two tours of Afghanistan, serving as Forward Air Controller from 2007 to 2008 and as an Apache pilot from 2012 to 2013. Pictured in Helmand Province in 2008
They Also Served documents a list of 200 ‘exceptional individuals’ trained at Sandhurst
It sparked anger among those within the military ranks, with former British Army Colonel Richard Kemp calling the details in his autobiography a “betrayal of the people he fought with.”
Commenting on the decision to remove the prince from the book, Mr Kemp told The Sun: ‘I completely understand why he is not included. On balance, I probably would have taken him, but it’s not a disappointment not to see him there.
“I don’t think he did anything special in his service, but he was certainly an important person to go to Sandhurst. I suspect that the recent disharmony between him and the royal family has led to their decision not to admit him.
“One thing he said in his book was that the military taught him to see the enemy as less than human – and that’s not what we were taught. That has overshadowed a lot of the great things he did.”
The book’s author Vaughan Kent-Payne reportedly notes in the book that “not everyone has trained [there] was a good egg,” adding that there are “a few traitors and villains” who trained at the prestigious base.
Prince Harry completed the 44-week training at Sandhurst in Berkshire in 2005 before becoming an Officer in the Household Cavalry Blues and Royals in April 2006.
During his decade-long career in the Army, he served two tours in Afghanistan, serving as a Forward Air Controller from 2007 to 2008 and as an Apache pilot from 2012 to 2013.
While Prince Harry is left out of the book, his older brother Prince William wrote the text and even wrote the foreword. Pictured: Prince Harry and Prince William at the younger brother’s passing-out ceremony in Sandhurst
The Duke, pictured in the cockpit of his helicopter, wrote in Spare that ‘in the age of Apaches and laptops’ he could say ‘with accuracy’ how many insurgents he had killed.
Harry carried out his early morning pre-flight checks on the flight line at Camp Bastion in 2012
Prince William came to Sandhurst in 2006 before serving as an attachment to the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. He performed 150 operations before retiring in 2013.
Sandhurst has chosen 200 ‘exceptional individuals’ to feature in their book, including wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Nigerian President Murtala Mohammed and Oscar-winning actor David Niven.
More recent alumni include astronaut Tim Peake and polar explorer Preet Chandi.
Taking Prince William’s page, the book reportedly explains that due to the heir’s future duty as king, this meant he “could not be called into military service like his younger brother Harry.”
In his impressive memoir, Prince Harry – who was known in the army as Captain Wales – wrote that he did not regard the dead as people, but as ‘chess pieces’ he had taken from the board.
The Duke, speaking for the first time about the number of rebels he had personally killed during his time in the army, said it was “not a fact that filled me with satisfaction, but neither was I ashamed of it.”
It sparked a response from the military community. Former Royal Marine Ben McBean, who previously hailed Prince Harry as a “hero” after he lost an arm and a leg in a bomb attack during the war, urged the duke to “shut his mouth.”
Prince Charles speaks with his two sons during Prince Harry’s passing-out ceremony at Sandhurst in 2006
Harry races out of the VHR (very high readiness) tent to clamber his Apache with fellow pilots onto the British controlled flight line at Camp Bastion, southern Afghanistan, in 2012
He tweeted after the memoir was published: “I love you #PrinceHarry but you need to shut up! It makes you wonder what people he hangs out with. If they had been good people, someone would have told him to stop now.’
Meanwhile, Bob Stewart – a serving independent MP who was a member of the Conservative Party – labeled the comments as ‘distasteful’.
He said at the time: ‘I wonder why he does things like that. Real soldiers tend to shy away. People I know don’t brag about such things. They’re more likely to regret having to do it.’
Following the public outcry, the Duke insisted he was not bragging about the killings, telling US presenter Stephen Colbert that his critics were “twisting” his words.
“I think one of the most dangerous lies they’ve told is that I somehow bragged about how many people I killed in Afghanistan,” he told Colbert.
“I would say that if I heard someone else, anyone, bragging about that kind of thing, I would be angry. But it’s a lie.
He added: “My words are not dangerous, but the twist of my words is very dangerous to my family.”