Togetherness for Prince William's confirmation
By Tom Utley
97/3/10
IN perfect spring sunshine, Prince William was confirmed yesterday at St George's Chapel, Windsor, as a full member of the Church of which he should one day become Supreme Governor.
Earlier, the 14-year-old Prince had posed with his family and godparents, for the first official photograph since 1993 in which his parents and the Queen have been pictured together. The atmosphere was said to be extremely happy and relaxed.
The 45-minute private service, attended by a congregation of only 40, was conducted according to the Book of Common Prayer by the traditionalist Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres. This was a departure from the usual royal practice of inviting the Archbishop of Canterbury to confirm the monarch's closest relations. But St James's Palace insisted that the Prince of Wales meant no snub to Dr George Carey, with whose preference for modern evangelical forms of worship the Prince is believed to be unhappy.
Unusually, the Prince and Diana, Princess of Wales arrived for the service and left it in the same car with their two sons. The Prince was at the wheel and his former wife was sitting beside him.
Prince William's five surviving godparents were all present for the service, and at a lunch for 17 held by the Queen at Windsor Castle earlier. They are King Constantine of Hellenes, Lady Susan Hussey, Princess Alexandra, the Duchess of Westminster and Lord Romsey. His sixth godparent, the writer and mystic Sir Laurens van der Post, died at the end of last year.
Throughout the official photograph session, held in the White Drawing Room at Windsor, the Queen laughed and joked with her family and the godparents.
Sitting at the end of the front row, she turned to the godparents standing behind her, and pre- empted the official photographer, Ian Jones of The Daily Telegraph, by telling them that they were standing too far back.
"Move forward, move forward, otherwise you won't be in focus," she said, adding as the party laughed: "You see? I do know something about photography."
For the photograph, the Prince of Wales and his ex-wife sat on each side of Prince William. They spoke to other members of the party and not to each other, but both were laughing and seemed completely at ease. Prince William showed few signs of mirth, although he consulted his father and looked around at other members of the party to make sure he was holding his hands for the photograph in the same way as everyone else.
Apart from the godparents and their spouses, guests at the lunch included Toby Williamson, the Queen's Equerry, and the Bishop of London and his wife.
At the service itself, the guests included Gerald Barber, headmaster of Ludgrove - the two Princes' prep school - and Alan Fisher, the former royal butler. Among the absentees were Prince Philip, who is on a foreign tour, and Frances Shand-Kydd, mother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Mrs Shand Kydd, said she was "not the person to ask" about her absence. "You should ask the offices of William's parents," she added. "I don't want to talk about it."
When the Prince of Wales was confirmed at Windsor in 1965, his father is said to have read quietly throughout the service from a book that looked little like the Bible, or the Book of Common Prayer.
Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and the Princess Royal, did not attend yesterday's service either. Another notable absentee was Tiggy Legge-Bourke, whose friendship with the two young princes after the break-up of their parents' marriage is said to have irritated their mother.
Yesterday Prince William took one further step along the path that led his ancestors to the Throne, the Supreme Governorship of the Church of England and the title of Defender of the Faith. Whether that path will lead him to the same destiny will be for the politics of Church and State to decide.
When Prince William enrolled at Eton, he had to ask his father what religion he had to put on the form.
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