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60 facts about HRH The Prince of Wales

14th November 2008

It is The Prince of Wales's 60th birthday and to mark the occasion, here are 60 facts about His Royal Highness:

1. The Prince of Wales was born at Buckingham Palace and was christened in the Music Room by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Geoffrey Fisher). His godparents were: King George VI, Queen Mary, Princess Margaret, King Haakon of Norway, Prince George of Greece, The Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, Lady Brabourne, Hon. David Bowes-Lyon.
2. The Prince of Wales was confirmed into the Church of England in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Arthur Michael Ramsey) on 13th April 1965.
3. On 26th November 1965 The Prince acted in the school play, Macbeth.
4. On 16th January 1963, The Prince passed the Bronze test of the Swiss National Ski School.
5. In 1966, The Prince of Wales visited Papua New Guinea during a term spent at Timbertop School, an annexe of Geelong Grammar School in Australia. This was part of an exchange programme and a student from Geelong went to Gordonstoun in The Prince’s place.
6. In 1968, during his time at Cambridge, The Prince wrote an article for “Varsity”, the university newspaper. 
7. The Prince also participated in the Varsity revue and had a performing role each year during his university career.
8. In 1969, The Prince spent the summer term at the University College of Wales in Aberstwyth to study the history, language and current problems of Wales.
9. The Prince made his first speech in Welsh at the Urdd Eisteddfod on 31st May 1969.
10. On 17th June 1968, The Prince of Wales was invested as a Knight of the Garter.
11. By 1977, The Prince had completed five years service in the Royal Navy and was promoted to the rank of Commander.
    
12.  The Prince is the 21st person to hold the title The Prince of Wales.
13. The Prince was created Prince of Wales on 26th July 1958. The title is not automatically awarded and is in the gift of The Sovereign. The Queen’s announcement was recorded and introduced by The Duke of Edinburgh at the closing ceremony of the Empire Games at Cardiff. The Queen was unable to attend personally due to illness. The Prince became the first Prince of Wales since 1935. 
14. On 29th July 1981, The Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul's Cathedral. She became known as HRH The Princess of Wales. The Princess was born on 1st July 1961, at Park House on The Queen's estate at Sandringham, Norfolk, and lived there until the death of her grandfather, the 7th Earl, in 1975, when the family moved to the Spencer family seat at Althorp House in Northamptonshire. Lady Diana's father, then Viscount Althorp and later the eighth Earl Spencer, had been an equerry to both George VI and The Queen. Her maternal grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, was a close friend and Lady-in-Waiting to The Queen Mother. 
15. The Prince and Princess of Wales had two sons, Prince William, born on 21st June 1982, and Prince Harry, born on 15th September 1984. Prince William’s full name is Prince William Arthur Philip Louis. Prince Harry’s full name is Prince Henry Charles Albert David, but is always known as Prince Harry.
16. When King George VI, died aged 56 on 6th February 1952 and upon The Queen's accession to the throne, Prince Charles - as the Sovereign's eldest son - became heir apparent at the age of three. The Prince, as Heir to The Throne, took on the traditional titles of The Duke of Cornwall under a charter of King Edward III in 1337; and, in the Scottish peerage, of Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.
17. The young prince was created Prince of Wales when he was nine years old. The Queen later let it be known that the Investiture would be held when The Prince was old enough to understand fully its significance.
18. The investiture of The Prince of Wales, during which the 20-year-old Prince received the insignia as the 21st Prince of Wales from The Queen, took place on 1st July 1969, at Caernarfon Castle in front of 4,000 guests inside the medieval walls.  Thousands more were in the dry moat and outside the castle, and millions around the world watched on television.
19. In a ceremony with many historic echoes, directed largely by the Constable of the Castle, Lord Snowdon, The Queen invested The Prince with the Insignia of his Principality and Earldom of Chester: a sword, coronet, mantle, gold ring and gold rod.
20. The Post Office issued special stamps to mark the Investiture, three stamps showing aspects of Caernarvon Castle, one stamp showing a Celtic Cross – a symbol peculiar to Wales – and one stamp containing a portrait of The Prince of Wales with a denomination of 1s. 6d.
21. The Prince passed his driving test on the morning of Tuesday 11th April 1967 in the Isleworth district. His Royal Highness drove a Rover 2000 from the Royal Mews.
22. The Prince of Wales has 31 godchildren. The Prince was also godfather to the Hon Nicholas Timothy Charles Knatchbull, who was killed by the IRA along with Earl Mountbatten in Ireland on 27th August 1979.
23. On 28th July 1971, The Prince of Wales made a parachute jump from an Andover into Studland Bay, Dorset. 
24. His Royal Highness's first Colonelcy-in-Chief was of the Royal Regiment of Wales, to which he was appointed on 1st July 1969 - the day of his investiture as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle.
25. The Prince of Wales takes part in the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards, London, wearing his uniform of Colonel of the Welsh Guards. He has held that appointment since 1975, the year in which he first rode in the centuries-old ceremony which marks The Queen's official birthday.
26. Highgrove House and the surrounding estate was bought by The Duchy of Cornwall in 1980 for The use of The Prince of Wales and his family. The house was orignally built between 1796 and 1798.
27. The Prince of Wales moved into Clarence House in 2003 after the house underwent a major refurbishment following the death of his grandmother Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
28. The Prince’s first car was a cobalt blue MGC GT purchased in 1968.
    
29. The Prince of Wales is a qualified pilot and first took the controls of an aircraft at the age of 19. The Prince flew his first solo flight on 14th January, 1969, from RAF Bassingbourn, after 14 and a half hours of instruction. When he was older he learned to fly a plane and joined the RAF – known as 'getting your wings'. His Royal Highness even flew himself to university to attend his graduation and receive his Master of Arts.
30. In July 1975, The Prince spent 47 minutes under water examining the wreck of the Mary Rose, a Tudor warship sunk off Portsmouth in 1545: he was the first member of the Royal Family to see it since Henry VIII watched the ship sink. It was the first of a number of dives The Prince made to the wreck, and he became President of the Mary Rose Trust which raised the remains of the ship in 1982 for preservation in a new museum at Portsmouth. The Prince of Wales has also dived under a solid sheet of ice in Canada.
31. The Prince of Wales is an accomplished horseman and in the 1980s rode in a number of competitive races. The Prince's racing colours were scarlet with royal blue sleeves and black cap.
32. The Prince of Wales’s Chase, named after His Royal Highness, was first run at Chepstow on 3rd December 1983.
33. In 1963, aged 15, The Prince of Wales played in his first polo match in a team captained by The Duke of Edinburgh on the private ground at Windsor, and the next April played in public for the first time.
34. In 1966, The Prince spent two terms at the remote outback Timbertop School, an annexe of Geelong Grammar in Australia. In March 2005, The Prince returned to Geelong Grammar during a five-day visit to Australia to help the school celebrate its 150th anniversary.
35. In April 1969, The Prince of Wales left Cambridge to spend a term at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, where he studied Welsh and the history of the Wales. To this day, The Prince often begins and ends speeches given in Wales in the language of the Principality. 
36. The Prince has a number of honours from overseas countries. These include the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (Japan – awarded in 1971), the Order of St Olaf (Norway - awarded in 1978), Order of the Star of Ghana (Ghana – awarded in 1977), and the Order of the Elephant (Denmark – awarded in 1974) and the Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil – awarded in 1978).
37. The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall were married in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor. Prince William and Tom Parker Bowles were the witnesses to the marriage, which was followed by a Service of Prayer and Dedication at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
38. The post of Official Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales was reinstated in 2000. The Prince re-established the position to help celebrate and foster musical talent in Wales.  The current holder of the role is harpist Claire Jones, winner of the Welsh National Eisteddfod 2006, and one of Wales’ brightest young talents. 
39. Historically, previous official royal harpists have included Welshman, John Thomas (1826-1913) who succeeded the Englishman, John Chatterton in 1871 as Royal Harpist to Queen Victoria and continued as the King’s Harpist to King Edward until his death in 1913. Nansi Richards (1888-1976) – student of John Thomas, was appointed Royal Harpist to The Prince of Wales at his investiture in 1911.
40. There are 20 charities in The Prince’s Charities – 18 of which were founded by The Prince himself.
41. The Prince’s Trust was founded by The Prince of Wales in 1976 using his £7400 severance pay from the Royal Navy.
42. Since it was founded, The Prince’s Trust has helped 550,000 young people overcome barriers and get their lives working. Through practical support including training, mentoring and financial assistance, it helps 14-30 year olds realise their potential and transform their lives. 
43. The Prince’s Trust focuses its efforts on young people who have struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law.
44. The Prince of Wales and Hamid Kharzi, President of Afghanistan, founded the Turquoise Mountain initiative in 2006 to help regenerate the teaching of traditional Afghan crafts and to preserve Murad Khane, the ancient part of Kabul city.
45. The Prince of Wales launched his own food company, Duchy Originals, in 1992 with its first product – a biscuit made from wheat and oats grown organically on the Home Farm at Highgrove.
46. The Prince of Wales is Patron or President of over 400 organisations.
47. The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall were presented with a 23-stone yak when they visited the village of Altit in Pakistan in November 2006. The Prince and The Duchess patted the yak on the nose before handing it back to the village, as custom dictates that the animal, a traditional gift for visitors, is immediately handed back to the giver as a goodwill gesture.
48. The Prince became Duke of Cornwall automatically upon The Queen's accession on 6th February 1952. The Duchy of Cornwall - the oldest and one of the biggest landed estates in England - has existed for more than 650 years and provides an income for the male heir to the throne.
49. The Duchy of Cornwall consists of around 54,521 hectares of land in 23 counties, mostly in the South West of England, and includes agricultural, residential and commercial property holdings. It also has an investment portfolio.
50. The Prince of Wales has three standards or banners - his Personal Standard, his Standard for Wales and his Standard for Scotland. Rules govern their use.
51. As Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness holds a number of titles and standards with rules that govern their use. The Prince’s full title is His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.
52. The Prince is strongly identified with The Prince of Wales’s Feathers, the use of which dates back to the 14th Century and the time of Edward, The Black Prince, who was the first Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales’s feathers comprises three silver (or white) feathers rising through a gold coronet of alternate crosses and fleur-de-lys. The motto "Ich Dien" (I serve) is on a dark blue ribbon beneath the coronet.
53. The motto of The Prince of Wales ‘Ich dien’, which means ‘I serve’.
54. The Prince is one of three members of the Royal Family able to grant Royal Warrants of appointment to companies. The company is then entitled to display The Prince of Wales’s Feathers on their products.
55. The Prince of Wales has three standards or banners - his Personal Standard, his Standard for Wales and his Standard for Scotland. Rules govern their use.
56. The Prince of Wales is known as The Duke of Rothesay in Scotland. When The Prince of Wales is in Scotland, he is known by this title of the Scottish peerage, first conferred by Robert III, King of Scots, on his son David in 1398. An act of the Scottish Parliament in 1469 confirmed its restriction to the heir apparent to the throne of Scotland. Since the 1603 Union of the Crowns the title has descended alongside the Dukedom of Cornwall, and The Prince became Duke of Rothesay at the time of The Queen's accession.
57. The Prince is the Earl of Chester. The Earldom was created by William the Conqueror, with the intention of the Earl keeping an eye on any war-like activities by the Welsh. It reverted to the Crown in 1237, and was passed to the future Edward I. He conferred the Earldom on his son, Edward II, and since then the Earldom of Chester has gone to every Prince of Wales. 
58. The gardens at Highgrove, Clarence House and Birkhall are run on an organic basis.
59. The Prince is a keen watercolourist. Royalties from the sale of lithographs of His Royal Highness’s paintings go toward The Prince's Charities Foundation which enables The Prince of Wales to give his support to a wide range of causes and projects by making charitable donations.
60. The Prince keeps a number of Indian Runner Ducks at Birkhall, Their Royal Highnesses’s home in Scotland. There is a long history of keeping Indian Runner Ducks in Scotland. From the middle of the 19th Century, merchants imported them from Indonesia in South East Asia (not India, despite their name) because they were excellent egg layers and could breed with ducks from this country to improve the latter’s egg-laying productivity. Because of their long bodies and the way they walk upright, the ducks used to be known as Penguin Ducks. As well as being great characters, the ducks act as a natural form of pest control in the organic Birkhall garden by nibbling on slugs and snails that can damage plants and vegetables.