Just over 13 short years ago, Prince William was gingerly strapping George's baby seat into the back seat of his car to take him home for the first time. Today, he and Catherine waved their firstborn off to boarding school.
While George will be free to return home for a visit within weeks, it marks the end of an era for the Wales family, but also an exciting new chapter in their eldest son’s life.
Arriving in pouring rain with his parents at Eton College earlier today, wearing a dark-blue suit and tie and almost matching his mother in height, the 13-year-old future monarch smiled broadly as he was welcomed by headmaster Simon Henderson and the Provost, Sir Nicholas Coleridge, who is also chairman of the King’s Foundation.
“Welcome,” the headmaster told him. “Enjoy it.”
In one sense, the young Prince’s arrival at Eton shows continuity. He will be following a well-trodden path for members of the royal family, not least his father and uncle Harry.
But while today’s new start echoes that familiar rite of passage – the same traditions and tailcoats will follow – George brings a very different experience of family life, and of growing up in the public eye.
When, aged 13, William signed the College register in front of the cameras, his parents were long separated, although they came together for his big day, bringing Harry along too.
As my predecessor at HELLO! Judy Wade, wrote at the time: “There was no chance to give way to tears of apprehension or homesickness. He had to hide his new-boy nerves under a show of bravado as 300 members of the press, massed behind steel bars, witnessed the event.”
© GettyIn the years that followed William’s first day, his parents divorced and his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris.
Eton became a haven for him and one in which he made lifelong friends, whom he continues to rely on to this day.
Poignantly, it also brought him closer to his grandparents Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who he regularly visited at Windsor for lunch or tea. George’s first day carried added emotional significance then, falling as it did on the fourth anniversary of his great-grandmother's death.
That William and Catherine have chosen to send George to the same school shows they are confident that it will provide him with the same supportive and nurturing environment in which he can thrive.
While William will well understand any first-day nerves, he also knows that when the gates close behind his son, he will be well looked after.
© GettyBut he and Catherine have given him a very different springboard from which to take this next step – an unusually close and secure family life.
Rather than needing Eton to provide an escape from upheaval at home, George has been enveloped in love and stability throughout his childhood and has a strong base from which to build his independence. As Dr Sarah Lebovitz Suria, a licensed psychologist and school admissions strategist, put it to me: “This is a coming-of-age story with a modern twist, but one that still respects family legacy."
"George will be building his sense of self in the context of a school attended by both his father and uncle. It can offer him an opportunity to continue a family tradition, while beginning to carve out a path and identity of his own.”
“Going away to school does not have to mean growing away from your family. Returning home regularly reflects a more modern approach to parenting, giving George room to become more independent while staying connected to William, Catherine and the family life he knows.”
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesThat determination to give George independence without overwhelming him with public scrutiny, a lesson learned by William himself, was clear in the way that his first day was handled.
Watching the historic moment were just two reporters, one cameraman and a photographer - a far less daunting prospect for a new pupil than the sea of cameras that watched his father enter his living quarters at Manor House almost 31 years ago to the day.
That George’s boarding house remains off limits to the media is another sign of how William has learned from his own experience.
© Kensington PalaceThe media returned a day after William’s arrival to capture him wandering between lessons, known at Eton as “divs”, in his full school uniform. New boys arrive in their own clothes, as George did today. Three decades on, William and Catherine removed the incentive for photographers to do the same with their son by sharing their own image of him wearing Eton’s traditional tailcoat, winged collars and white tie.
William and Catherine hope that after sharing a glimpse of this major moment in their eldest son’s journey, he will be left alone to enjoy school without intrusion. With strict guidelines in place under IPSO’s Editors’ Code of Practice, media outlets will follow their wishes. But the bigger unknown is how those around him will manage curious tourists armed with smartphone cameras.
Their hope is that he will be able to fit in and have some experience of feeling “ordinary” in a school where the children of high profile-families are not unusual.
© POOL/AFP via Getty Images"William knows better than anyone what lies ahead for George. What he and Catherine appear determined to do is ensure their son reaches that future having had the time and space to discover who he is, and what he enjoys, for himself."
As Sir Anthony Seldon previously told HELLO!: “It knows how to deal with an heir to the throne and how to provide him an environment where he will not be a talking point. He won't be a quirk. People are just very relaxed about who somebody is.
“You cannot put too high a value on that. What he needs is five years of life invisible to the public gaze, where he can grow up unhassled and unfussed, allowing him to prepare for a lifetime of public duty.”
William knows better than anyone what lies ahead for George. What he and Catherine appear determined to do is ensure their son reaches that future having had the time and space to discover who he is, and what he enjoys, for himself.
