Royal Profile: Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge

Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, The Duke of Cambridge was born 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London, the eldest son of Prince Charles of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales {Source}. At barely two months old on his paternal great-grandmother's 82nd birthday, he was baptized in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace, with the following Godparents{Source}:

  • King Constantine II of Greece (his paternal cousin)
  • Princess Alexandra, The Hon Mrs Angus Ogilvy (his paternal cousin)
  • The Duchess of Westminster
  • The Lady Susan Hussey
  • Lord Romsey (his paternal cousin)
  • Sir Laurens van der Post

Today, he himself is godfather to{Source}:

  1. Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece and Denmark (1998) (Grandson of his godfather)
  2. Tom Pettifer (2002) (son of his childhood nanny)
  3. Grace Emilie Claire van Cutsem (2007)


In 1984, he became a big brother, to Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales{Source}. When his father remarried in 2005, he gained a stepbrother and stepsister, a stepsister-in-law, and a year after their parents' marriage, they were joined by a stepbrother-in-law{Source}. He is also a step-uncle to his step-sibling's five children, one of which was a bridesmaid in his 2011 wedding to Catherine Middleton {Source}{Source}{Source}


Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was name for:


  1. William: for his father's "hero" and maternal cousin, Prince William of Gloucester who died in a 1972 plane crash {Source}
  2. Arthur: a traditional British Family name-his father and great-grandfather also have Arthur amongst their names {Source}
  3. Philip: For his paternal grandfather {Source}
  4. Louis: for his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten of Burma {Source}



For most of his youth, he did typical childhood things, in addition to making numerous royal appearances. As an toddler, he traveled with his parents on an official overseas royal tour to Austrialia and New Zeland in 1983 {Source}. The decision to take him along was his mother's idea, and was considered unconventional due to Prince William being so young and that the first and second in line for the British throne would be travelling together {Source}. The Prince visited attended a service at St. Paul's Cathedral with his mother and brother to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the blitz (the bombing of Britain in the early months of WWII) in October 1990 {Source}. That December, the Prince again joined his mother for a Christmas concert by the London Symphony Chorus, where he signed the guest book, demonstrating that he is left-handed {Source}. His first official public engagment was on 1 March 1991 (Saint David's Day), during an official visit of his parents to Cardiff, Wales{Source}. In May 1995, The Duke of Cambridge accompanied his mother, father and brother to the 50th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) commemorations and in August 1995, the future King and his family attended the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of VJ Day and the end of WWII {Source}. In March 1998, he and his brother accompanied their father on a trip to Vancouver, Canada, where the father and son trio carried out a number of official engagements before spending a few days on a skiing holiday {Source}. In 2000, he was again joined by his father and brother for a trip to Wales {Source}. At the age of 21, Prince William was appointed as a Counsellor of State, and began his royal duties by first serving in that capacity when the Queen was abroad to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2003, in Nigeria.For his 21st birthday, William also accompanied his father on a royal tour of Wales, where they visited the Anglesey Food Fair and opened a centre for the homeless in Newport. By July 2005, he was on his first solo overseas tour, travelling to New Zealand, on behalf of his grandmother in her role as Queen of New Zealand, to participate in World War II commemorations. In July 2007, Prince William accompanied his grandmother's cousin The Duke of Kent, who is President of the UK Scout Association, in opening the 21st World Scout Jamboree, celebrating the centennial of the founding of the Scout Movement.In February 2011, he and his future bride-to-be returned to their alma matter as Patrons of the university's 600th Anniversary Appeal{Source}.

Over the years, Prince William has been on many vacations, many of which have been to skiing resorts. The first known trip was in April 1991, to a ski resort in Austria in the company of his mother, brother, first-cousin 1x removed, Viscount Linely and Viscount Linely's lady friend at the time {Source}. In May 1991, the Wales family vacationed in Tresco, one of the Scilly Islands {Source}. Upon returning to school after holidays in Austria and Scilly Islands, the young prince was in a minor accident on his school's putting green, which caused him to be admitted to the hospital for a depressed fracture on his forehead {Source}.He dubbed this scar a "Harry Potter scar". He was reported to have said, "I call it (the scar) that because it glows sometimes and some people notice it-other times they don't notice it at all" {Source}.

After a turmoil of a marriage, his parents separated when he was eleven years old {Source} and were officially divorced in 1996 {Source}. His mother died in an accident in Paris when he was fifteen years old {Source}. At her funeral, The Duke of Cambridge along side his father, brother and grandfather walked behind Diana, Princess of Wales' cortege {Source}.

For his education, he attended independent schools {Source}. He began his education at Jane Mynors' nursery school before attending Wetherby School {Source}. After Wetherby, he attended Ludgrove School and was privately tutored in the summer months by Rory Stewart {Source}. He took the entrance exam for Eton College and was admitted {Source}.While there, he took his A-Level exams, where he studied and obtained grades in an A in geography, a C in biology and a B in history of art {Source}. After completing his studies at Eton, the Prince took a gap year, during which he took part in British Army training exercises in Belize {Source}, worked within English dairy farms {Source}, visited Africa, and for ten weeks taught children in southern Chile {Source}. As part of the Raleigh International programme in the town of Tortel, the Prince lived with other young teachers, sharing in the common household chores, including cleaning the toilet, and also volunteered as the guest radio jockey for the local radio station {Source}. He returned to the UK in 2001, where he began to study as William Wales at the University of St. Andrews, where he decided to study art history {Source}. Later on, however, the future King changed his subject to geography and went on to pursue a Scottish Masters of Arts degree with upper 2nd class honors in Geography {Source}.

During his days at Ludgrove, he was an active sportsman, participating in football, swimming, basketball, clay pigeon shooting and cross-country running {Source}. While at Eton, in addition to keeping up his other sports activities, he took up water-polo {Source}.While at university, Prince William also represented the Scottish national universities water polo team at the Celtic Nations tournament in 2004 {Source}.


He resides in an apartment at Kensington Palace with his wife and their two young children{Source}:
  1. Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge (2013)
  2. Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge (2016)

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