William, Prince of Wales
William, Prince of Wales, is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.
William was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was educated at Wetherby School, Ludgrove School and Eton College. He earned a Master of Arts degree in geography at the University of St Andrews where he met his future wife, Catherine Middleton. They have three children: George, Charlotte and Louis.
After university, William trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst prior to serving with the Blues and Royals. In 2008 he graduated from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, joining the RAF Search and Rescue Force in early 2009. He served as a full-time pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance for two years from July 2015.
William performs official duties and engagements on behalf of the monarch. He is patron of multiple charitable and military organisations, including the Tusk Trust, Centrepoint, The Passage, Wales Air Ambulance and London's Air Ambulance Charity. Through the Royal Foundation, his work focuses on mental health, conservation, homelessness, and emergency workers. In 2020 William launched the Earthshot Prize, an initiative to incentivise environmental solutions.
William was made Duke of Cambridge immediately before his wedding in April 2011. He became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay upon his father's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022. The following day he was made Prince of Wales.
Early life
William was born at 9:03pm on 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London, during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was the first child of Charles, Prince of Wales, and his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. He was the first direct heir to the British throne to be born in a hospital. Buckingham Palace announced his nameWilliam Arthur Philip Louison 28 June. William was christened in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, on 4 August, coinciding with the 82nd birthday of his paternal great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.William was the first child born to a Prince and Princess of Wales since Prince John was born to Prince George and Princess Mary in July 1905. When he was nine months old, William accompanied his parents on their 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand, as his first trip overseas. It also marked the first time that a royal baby was taken on an overseas tour. Family photographs of William and his parents on the grounds of Government House in Auckland, New Zealand, received significant global coverage, and have been identified as a major reason why the Buzzy Bee, the toy which William was playing with, became a New Zealand cultural icon.
File:Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Prince William at Government House, 1983.jpg|thumb|left|With his parents in Auckland playing with a Buzzy Bee during the 1983 tour of New Zealand|alt=A young William, sitting with his parents on a mat, playing with a toy
His younger brother, Prince Harry, was born in September 1984. Both of them were raised at Kensington Palace in London, and Highgrove House in Gloucestershire.
Known informally as "Wills" within his family, William was nicknamed "Willy" by his brother and "Wombat" by his mother. Diana wished her sons to obtain broader and more typical life experiences beyond royal upbringing, taking them to Walt Disney World, McDonald's, AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless. The biographer Robert Lacey asserts that William, described as a "rambunctious" and "bratty" child, became "more reflective" with a "noticeably quiet character" as he began boarding school. Diana was reported to have described William as "my little wise old man" on whom she started to rely as her confidant by his early teens.
William carried out his first public engagement while accompanying his parents on a visit to Llandaff on Saint David's Day in 1991. He and Harry travelled to Canada on an official visit with their parents in 1991 and again with Charles in 1998. William's parents divorced in 1996. Diana died in a car accident in the early hours of 31 August 1997. William, then aged 15, together with his 12-year-old brother and their father, was staying at Balmoral Castle at the time. The following morning, Charles informed William and Harry of their mother's death. William was reportedly uncertain as to whether he should walk behind his mother's coffin during the funeral procession. His grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, told him: "If you don't walk, I think you'll regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?". At the funeral, William and Harry walked alongside their father, grandfather, and maternal uncle, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.
After his mother's death, William stated that he was "in a state of shock for many years". He and Harry inherited the majority of the £12.9 million left by their mother on their respective 30th birthdays, a figure that had grown to £10 million each by 2014. In 2014 the brothers inherited their mother's wedding dress along with many other of her personal possessions including dresses, diamond tiaras, jewels, letters and paintings. They also received the original lyrics and score of "Candle in the Wind" by Bernie Taupin and Elton John as performed by the latter at Diana's funeral. In 2002 The Times reported that William and Harry would also share £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother on their respective 21st birthdays, as well as £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays.
Education
William was educated at private schools. He started at Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School before continuing at Ludgrove School near Wokingham, Berkshire. At Ludgrove, William was active in sport before being admitted to Eton College, where he studied geography, biology, and history of art at A-Level. He also took part in several sports.The decision to send William to Eton broke with royal tradition, as his father and grandfather had both attended Gordonstoun. The royal family and the press agreed William would be allowed to study free from media intrusion in exchange for periodic official updates. In June 1991, William was admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital after being accidentally hit on the forehead by a fellow pupil wielding a golf club. He suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and was operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital, resulting in a permanent scar. The incident received widespread media attention. After leaving Eton, William took a gap year. He joined British Army training exercises in Belize, worked on English dairy farms, and visited Africa. He also spent ten weeks in southern Chile with Raleigh International, taking part in community projects and teaching English.
In 2001 William enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Similar to his time at Eton, the media agreed not to invade his privacy, and students were warned not to leak stories to the press. William embarked on a degree course in art history but later changed his main subject to geography. He focused his dissertation on the Indian Ocean's Rodrigues coral reefs and graduated with an undergraduate Master of Arts degree with upper second class honours in 2005. While at university, he represented the Scottish national universities water polo team at the Celtic Nations tournament in 2004. He was reportedly known as "Steve" by other students to avoid any journalists realising his identity.
Early appointments and duties
At the age of 21, William became a Counsellor of State. In July 2005, he undertook his first solo public engagements on an overseas tour of New Zealand, travelling to participate in World War II commemorations. In 2009 the Queen set up a private office for William and Harry with David Manning as their adviser. Manning accompanied William on his first official tour in January 2010 as the latter toured Auckland and Wellington. The visit spurred crowds of "many thousands", with positive public reception compared to that of his mother's 1983 tour. In March 2011, William visited Christchurch, New Zealand, shortly after the earthquake, and spoke at the memorial service at Hagley Park on behalf of his grandmother. He also travelled to Australia to visit areas affected by flooding in Queensland and Victoria.Before attending Sandhurst, William did a three-week internship at several institutions, including the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and Lloyd's of London. To prepare for his eventual management of the Duchy of Cornwall, in 2014, he entered St John's College, Cambridge to undertake an executive agriculture management degree run by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, of which his father is patron. In April 2019, Kensington Palace announced that William had completed a three-week internship at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, during which he was tasked with monitoring extreme Islamist terror cells, identifying potential threats abroad, and observing code breaking technology.
Military and air ambulance service
Having decided on a military career, William was admitted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2006; his admission was based on successfully completing a 44-week course as an Officer Cadet which led to his commission as a British Army officer. As "Lieutenant Wales"a name based on his father's then title Prince of Waleshe followed his brother into the Blues and Royals in December that year as a second lieutenant after which he spent five months training for the post at Bovington Camp in Dorset.Despite the Queen's approval for William to serve on the frontline, his position as second-in-line to the throne at the time cast doubts on his chances of seeing combat. Plans by the Ministry of Defence to send William to Southern Iraq leaked and the government eventually decided against sending him as it would endanger both his life and the lives of people around him if he was targeted. William instead trained in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission as a sub-lieutenant in the former and a flying officer in the latter, both broadly equivalent to the army rank of lieutenant. After completing his training, he undertook an attachment with the Royal Air Force at RAF Cranwell.
Upon completing the course he was presented with his RAF wings by his father, who had received his own wings after training at Cranwell. During this secondment, William flew to Afghanistan in a C-17 Globemaster that repatriated the body of Trooper Robert Pearson. William was then seconded to train with the Royal Navy. He then completed an accelerated Naval Officer training course at the Britannia Royal Naval College. Whilst serving on HMS Iron Duke in July 2008, William participated in a £40m drug seizure in the Atlantic, north-east of Barbados. He was part of the crew on the Lynx helicopter which helped seize 900 kg of cocaine from a speedboat.
As part of his training across all branches of the military in 2008 and 2009, he spent up to six weeks with the Special Air Service, the Special Boat Service, and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment. In January 2009, William transferred his commission to the RAF and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He trained to become a helicopter pilot with the RAF's Search and Rescue Force. In January 2010, he graduated from the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury. In the same month, he transferred to the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley, Anglesey, to receive training on the Sea King search and rescue helicopter; he graduated in September 2010. This made him the first member of the British royal family since Henry VII to live in Wales.
William's first rescue mission as co-pilot of a RAF Sea King was in response to an emergency call from Liverpool Coastguard in October 2010. In November 2011, he participated in a search-and-rescue mission involving a cargo ship that was sinking in the Irish Sea; William, as a co-pilot, helped rescue two sailors. He was deployed to the Falkland Islands for a six-week tour with No. 1564 Flight from February to March 2012. The Argentine government condemned William's deployment to the islands close to the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Falklands War as a "provocative act". In June 2012, he gained a qualification to be captain or pilot in command of a Sea King rather than a co-pilot. His active service as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot ended in September 2013. He conducted 156 search and rescue operations, which resulted in 149 people being rescued. He later became patron of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
In July 2015, William began working full-time as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance based at Cambridge Airport, which he felt was a natural progression from his previous search-and-rescue role. He donated his full salary to the EAAA charity. William required a civil pilot's licence and further training before being permitted to begin his role. He underwent part of his training at Norwich Airport. William described working irregular shifts and dealing mostly with critical care cases. He also discussed the impact of witnessing intensive trauma and bereavement on his mental health and personal life. The BBC has written that William was "exposed to the National Health Service in a way that no other senior royal has been or possibly ever will be."
William left his position with EAAA in July 2017 to assume full-time royal duties. After supporting an anniversary campaign for London's Air Ambulance Charity in 2019, he became the charity's official patron in March 2020. In May 2020, he granted permission to the charity to use Kensington Palace's private lawn to refuel during the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2023, he became patron of the Wales Air Ambulance charity. In December 2025, he became patron of the Special Air Service Regimental Association.