Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

EARLY LIFE 

Prince William was born at 9:03 pm on June 21, 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London. He was the first ever heir to the throne to be born in a hospital.

By Northern Ireland Office 

His father is King Charles III and his mother was Diana, Princess of Wales. He has one younger brother, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Prince William, then aged three, was made the six millionth member of the Automobile Association and given free life membership, on June 6, 1986.

When he was a child William wanted to be a police officer so he could protect his mother.

When he was little, William called the Queen ‘Gary’, as he couldn’t say ‘ Granny’.

Princess Diana once invited the model Cindy Crawford to dinner at Buckingham Palace because Prince William had a crush on her.

William has a large scar above his left eyebrow. It was caused when he was nine by a friend at school accidentally hitting him with a golf club. Both his parents rushed to his bedside in hospital. After he was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, Princess Diana stayed with William for two nights, but Prince Charles, assured by surgeons that his son was fine, left after 17 minutes to go to the opera.

EDUCATION 

Prince William attended Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London. Following this, he went to Ludgrove School. near Wokingham, Berkshire,

After passing the entrance exams, Prince William attended Eton College, where he studied geography, biology, and history of art at A-Level.

Prince William secured a place at St Andrew's University in Scotland to study history of art on August 17, 2000. He later changed to geography and got a 2:1.

William enrolled at St. Andrew's under the name William Wales in 2001. He first met his future wife Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge, during his time there.

While at university, Prince William was called "Steve" to avoid any journalists overhearing and discovering his identity. His friends referred to him as Billy the Fish (a play on William Wales).

His Scottish Master of Arts degree with upper second-class honors in geography is the highest degree ever obtained by an heir to the British throne.

CAREER 

William is second in line, after his father, to succeed his grandmother Elizabeth II as the constitutional monarch of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms.

William graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on December 15, 2006. With his rank obtained, the Prince, using the name of William Wales, followed his younger brother Harry into the Blues and Royals as a troop commander in an armored reconnaissance unit.

William went on to train in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission as a sub-lieutenant in the former and flying officer in the latter—both broadly equivalent to the army rank of lieutenant.

He completed pilot training at the prestigious Royal Air Force College Cranwell, earning his wings in 2008.

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.

William's first rescue mission as co-pilot of an RAF Sea King was a response to an emergency call from the Liverpool Coastguard on October 2, 2010.

William wearing the uniform of a Flight Lieutenant. By Robert Payne

20 months later, Prince William 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.

His helicopter rescue missions included a dash to save a teenage girl caught in a riptide off the Welsh coast. William reached her within 38 seconds. His speed saved her life.

William then trained for a civil pilot's licence and spent over two years working as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Prince William will be the first English monarch with over 50% British ancestry since 1066. Normans to Plantagenets were French, Tudors were Welsh, Stuarts were Scots, Hanovers to Windsors were Germans, Queen Elizabeth II is half-Scottish, and William's father is half-Greek.

MARRIAGE 

Willia met Catherine Middleton at St Andrew's University. He first came across her when she was wearing a see-through dress at a university fashion show in 2002. They began dating in 2003.

William carried around his late mother's 18-carat ring in his rucksack before popping the question to Kate during a 10-day trip to Kenya in October 2010.

A worldwide television audience of 300 million people watched the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London on April 29, 2011.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the balcony of Buckingham Palace Magnus D

Their first child, George, was born on July 22, 2013 and their first daughter, Charlotte, was born on May 2, 2015. In April 2018, they welcomed their third child and second son, Louis.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS 

Prince William supports Aston Villa FC. He explained why to BBC's Gary Lineker. "All my friends at school were either Manchester United fans or Chelsea fans and I didn’t want to follow the run of the mill teams. I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional rollercoaster moments."

William became a fan of chicken chain Nando’s after a police bodyguard introduced him to it.