Prince William Wants Anonymity, and Gets It
Britain’s Prince William wants a bit more anonymity while he’s undergoing training at Sandhurst Military Academy. He reportedly requested that the marked vehicles that the Ministry of Defense deploys as part of his protection squad be replaced with less conspicuous cars.
From AHN comes this report:
In response to his complaint, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has decided to ditch the emblazoned cars and rent two Toyota four-wheel drives and a pair of Range Rovers.
The move will cost an extra $255,000 a year and will continue for the remainder of both William and his brother Prince Harry’s military careers.
A source told Britain’s The Mail on Sunday, “When Harry and William joined Sandhurst, the MoD drafted in their own officers even though both have royal bodyguards. He complained that the MoD cars were drawing attention to him. The princes want to be treated like any other recruit and William felt the cars marked him out as different.”
William’s usual protection squad wear civilian clothing and drive unmarked cars.
While he can’t be totally inconspicuous, given that he is second in line to the British throne, it appears that he does get a taste of the common life every now and then.
While on a cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais, the Prince was barred from entering the luxury lounge by an attendant who didn’t recognize him. He and his friends didn’t have tickets to the already full VIP lounge, and were turned away.
This is from the Times Online:
According to passengers on the Pride of Kent, the Prince and three companions tried to get into the club lounge soon after the vessel left Dover for the 75-minute Channel crossing. It was the first day of half-term and the ferry was packed with families and children. All tickets for the first-class lounge — which cost an extra £10 per passenger — had been pre-booked.
One passenger said: “It was hilarious. The woman checking tickets had a conversation with Prince William’s party and then told them they couldn’t come in. I don’t know if she recognised him but even if she did it didn’t make an difference. They obviously found it all quite amusing and went to the bar for a drink instead.
Another passenger said that Prince William had kept to the back of the group and had not tried to pull rank.
I’m sure that if Prince William really wanted to get away from the ordinary folk at the ferry, he could easily have introduced himself and gotten into the VIP lounge. Maybe he was even relieved not to be fawned over for once. When his group got to Calais, there was no limousine waiting for them, just “a fairly old VW Golf”.
Image: The Prince of Wales website
Tags: royalty, British royalty, British royals, Prince William
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