An invite to the Prince...

One of our troop, George, who you will get to meet very soon, was skillful and talented enough to be able to receive his military training through Sandhurst. By quirk and virtue of age and surnames beginning with letters towards the end of the alphabet, he spent much of his training sat next to Officer Cadet Harry Wales or Prince Harry to you and I.

They became stirringly good buddies, going through the many trials, tribulations and tomfoolery that accompanies any officers years of training.



It was in a moment of great misjudgement that George went for a night out with Prince Harry, and invited along Jim, another member of the troop who you will get to meet in the coming weeks. Jim is a fine upstanding fellow however in a state of intoxicated merriment, he caused a wave of consternation amongst Royal Protection Officers on this particular evening, when he put the poor Royal Prince in a head lock and demanded Champagne which he had rightfully paid for through his taxes. Jim, of course, neglegted to mention he was a non tax-paying student at the time. (For legal purposes I should state that the photo above is a reconstruction of the event and does not include Jim).

With this in mind, and with anecdotes a plenty as to what good company the Royals can be on expeditions, I decided that I should invite Prince William along on our sojourns. I laid a careful plan to head down to the Mall on Saturday morning for the Queen's birthday, Trooping the Colour, and make the suggestion to William there and then in person.

However it really didn't unfurl as planned. Firstly, it felt so impersonal as many others had turned up to watch me make my invite to Prince William. And secondly, he was with Camilla, who seemed to have an overwhelming influence and connection with the horses drawing their carriage, causing them to trundle at great speed.



I opened up dialogue with William as he arrived where I was waiting for him and, from my understanding, we had agreed to meet. I started my prepared pitch, "Hello William", however straight away I could sense that he wasn't as gung ho about this adventure as I. He immediately waved and smiled at me, but his body language was all wrong. I let it be. I've included a video of the moment which I think all of you will agree, really gives away William's reticence. (Sorry for the poor quality)



Princess Beatrice was following in the ensuing carriage and I thought about extending the invite to her, but I thought her family may be struggling financially at the moment so didn't want to put her in an embarrassing spot.