THERE will be no party for Prince Harry today as he spends his 16th
birthday at Eton where he has just started his third year ahead of next
summer's GCSE exams.
To mark the occasion, St James's Palace released a small selection of official
photographs by the Earl of Snowdon. Taken at Highgrove before the start of
term, they show the 6ft Prince looming over his proud father (5ft 10in) in an
informal setting.
A 16th birthday is often an occasion for shedding a little light on the lives of
hitherto closely-shielded royal children but few details about the third in line to
the throne were forthcoming yesterday.
Aside from the disclosure that Prince Harry has already passed two GCSEs
and that his interest in rugby has now superseded his passion for Arsenal
Football Club, a Palace spokesman simply confirmed that he enjoys polo,
swimming, pop music and action films. This was in contrast to Prince
William's 16th birthday in 1998 - and also his 18th birthday earlier this year -
when he provided written answers to a list of written questions.
This relative lack of information about Prince Harry reflects his future position.
While the Palace acknowledges a genuine public interest in Prince William as
a future king, his younger brother faces life in a supporting role. His family,
therefore, believe that there is less of a case for disclosing personal details.
Spared the burdens which lie ahead for his brother, Prince Harry always
seems the more easygoing of the two. During their occasional encounters with
the media, he is usually the more obliging and relaxed in front of the cameras,
the impish joker alongside the studious king-to-be.
One royal aide recalled: "William can be quite headstrong if he's asked to do
something he doesn't want to do, even by his father, but Harry will generally
shrug his shoulders and cheerfully get on with it."
While Prince William was a teenager during the upheavals of his parents'
divorce and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry was still a
boy and more sheltered from the turbulence around him. Of the two, it was
Prince Harry who grew closest to Tiggy Legge-Bourke, their former
assistant-cum-nanny who returned to St James's Palace after the Princess's
death and helped to look after the boys.
With a September birthday, he was always going to be very young or very
old for his academic year and it was decided that he should spend an extra
year at his prep school before joining his brother at Eton where he will sit his
A-Levels in 2003.
Both boys are extremely close to their father and to each other - although they
are as reluctant as most teenagers to show it in public. When asked to put
their arms round each other at a photocall five months ago, both recoiled,
giggling, in mock-disgust.
Both share the same love of country life and sport. Indeed, it is Prince Harry
who shows the greater aptitude for the favourite family pursuits of polo and
skiing. On a Swiss slope, it is invariably the younger Prince who is to be found
haring off in the direction of yet another ski jump while his older brother brings
up the rear with a sigh and a resigned shake of the head.
Although Prince Harry looks up to his protective older brother, he has no
qualms about teasing him and takes a predictably irreverent view of
"Willsmania". During their 1998 walkabout in Vancouver, thousands of
hysterical teenage girls had lined the streets to proclaim their love for a
somewhat nervous Prince William, much to Prince Harry's evident
amusement.
"Go on, wave at that lot," he would urge shy big brother, prodding him as they
passed another tearful contingent. When Prince William did, prompting a
manic outburst of screaming and shrieking, Prince Harry found the result
absolutely hilarious even if his brother did not. As one aide predicts: "Life is
never going to be very dull when Harry's around."
~*~
Wife of royal driver dies (Electronic Telegraph)
THE missing wife of Princess Margaret's chauffeur has died in hospital three
days after she was found collapsed in an Aberdeen hostel 700 miles from her
home.
Nikki Griffin, 55, vanished from the private members' club she ran in
Exmouth, Devon, almost four weeks ago. She had bone cancer and had
complained of being ill before she disappeared. Her estranged husband,
David, 53, was at her bedside when she died.
~*~
Princess Royal defends drug-ban
athletes(UK Times)
FROM DAVID WATTS IN SYDNEY
THE Princess Royal has entered the debate over drugs in
sport on the eve of the Olympic Games, saying that British
athletes may have been unfairly accused of taking banned
substances and that the Games would never be
drugs-free.
The Princess spoke after the withdrawal from the Games
of the sprinter Mark Richardson, who was accused of
taking nandrolone, a substance produced naturally by the
body. "The trouble is that with naturally produced
substances, at what stage do you decide that somebody
has tried to boost them as opposed to actually producing
them naturally?" she said in an interview with ITN. "That
requires better measurement and more consistent
measurement and obviously needs some more work done
on it."
The Princess added: "You'll never defeat it entirely - it's a
problem that will always be there. There's always a
possibility that people will find things that they think are
going to improve their performance even if it doesn't
actually. A drugs-free Olympics is probably not realistic,
but I think we can make it a lot better."
The Princess, who is chairman of the British Olympic
Association, also raised her concern about the size of the
Games, which she believes have grown too big through
the inclusion of team sports. "The extra people that come
here are a serious problem for the organisers," she said.
It is not the number of competitors that is worrying the
organisers as the Games begin, however, but the number
of Australians who have elected to travel abroad for their
duration. For much of the past week departures at
Sydney airport have outstripped arrivals as Sydneysiders
flee what they feared would be jams and high prices. One
estimate put total departures at 600,000 by midweek.
~*~
Prince Charles declines special treatment(Yahoo: Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Charles cancelled public appearances on Thursday and refused an offer
of petrol from police to suffer with the rest of the country, a royal spokeswoman said.
The heir to the throne was scheduled to tour his Duchy of Cornwall estates outside London to meet
farmers. Police had offered to supply petrol for the trip but the prince declined.
"He turned it down. He didn't feel he was an emergency service," the prince's spokeswoman said.
Although some tankers began rolling out of refineries on Wednesday, ordinary motorists face acute
petrol shortages for several days after a week of protests. Supplies are earmarked for police,
ambulances and other essential services.
Prince Charles also cancelled Friday's plans to meet farmers in southwest England. His schedule is to be approved on a
day-to-day basis while the petrol crisis continues.
"It's being kept under review. We'll see how it pans out," the spokeswoman said.