A budding environmentalist, a rugby fan, an art lover… there are many sides to the young royal who will one day sit on the throne
The eyes are direct to camera. The smile is open and engaging. Looking more mature than his years, and remarkably like his father, it’s clear from the photograph that Kensington Palace have released to mark his birthday that Prince George, who turns 10 today, is becoming more comfortable with the responsibilities that will eventually fall to him.
As the blue eyed toddler with the determined gaze and careful smile, it seemed almost impossible that this young man would one day hold the future of the monarchy on his shoulders, however much he resembled his grandfather at the same age. Reaching double figures is an important milestone in any child’s life, but how many of the children at his tenth birthday celebrations this weekend have their lives mapped out for them in quite the same way as Prince George?
It was three years ago when the Prince and Princess of Wales first started to tell their eldest son a little about the role that his grandpa, his father and then he too would one day play. According to royal historian Robert Lacey’s book, Battle of Brothers, George learned of his inherited role around his seventh birthday, in the summer of 2020, when, wrote Lacey, “his parents went into more detail about what the little prince’s life of future royal ‘service and duty’ would particularly involve”.
The late Queen set the example of duty throughout her reign and it continues to drive the Royal family after her death. This past year Prince George, her great grandson, has had his first taste of what that word truly means. As a solemn, stoic presence at the State funeral and a page of honour at the Coronation, the perfectly behaving youngster had a front-row seat to two pivotal moments in history.