PRINCE EDWARD OF WALES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160641, 3 May 1920, Page 6

PRINCE EDWARD OF WALES.

YOUTH AND EDUCATION.

time of habd endeatour.

IIFE AS UNDERGRADUATE,

WAR SERVICE IN FRANCE,

Even the briefest and most sketchy outline of the life of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales shows that it has been one in which hard work had predominated rather than leisure or pleasure. He was born at White Lodge, Richmond Park, on June 23, 1894. Up to the age of 13 years his education was conducted in his parents’ home. While still young he displayed a strong mechanical bent, while other interests were natural history and biography, the young Prince being to a considerable degree a hero-worshipper. At the age of 13 -the Prince was sent to Osborne as a naval cadet. Two years later he was transferred .to Dartmouth, and in 1910 became a full-fledged midshipman. A year later he was sent to Paris for 12 months' study of the French language and of political economy. In 1912 he entered as an undergraduate at Magdalen .College, Oxford, where he remained for two years, attending lectures and devoting special attention to constitutional law. Then came the outbreak of hostilities and the Prince’s departure for the front, after he had undergone the necessary preparation. Then followed a series of experiences in France and Italy, With soldierly instinct he declined to he safely and comfortably assigned duties at headquarters, but insisted on field service. He was, it has been stated, the first Heir-Apparent to the British Throne to see service overseas since the days of the Black Prince and his victories at Crec; and elsewhere in Prance,

FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE.

The Prince of Wales firse came prominently before the public in 1911, the year of his investiture at Carnarvon Castle, Iris participation in the Corona* tion of King George V., and his installation as a Knight of the Garter. Since then, when his military duties have not claimed him, he has undertaken, various ceremonial functions and he has gradually developed personal aptitudes very similar to those which distinguished the late King Edward TIL In May of last year he became Freeman of the City of London, and on June 2 he was installed as Grand Master of the Order of St. Michael and St. George,

The somewhat bare details of the life of the future Emperor and King have been filled out by various biographers with intimate touches of his character as it expanded and developed in the glare of constant public surveillance. There is, it has been written, no object of greater living interest than a promising specimen of young and talented manhood, starting out on the adventurous journey of life. He is the hope of a family circle which looks for the fulfilment of a career that will completely justify their admiration and pride, and his every movement, his advance towards that goal, is followed with eager attention.

It is in this very sense that the larger familycircle which comprises .the British peoples has watched the growth to man’s estate of the Prince of Wales. His future is the interest and concern of all the nations over which one day he is destined to reign. Recent years have seen a decline of monarchial power and authority. That, some think, is all to the good in a democratic age. But it is also true that probably at no time has the influence of the monarchy counted for more in England than at the present. , Why? Simply because the King has revealed himself as a man supremely concerned with the health, happiness, prosperity, and general ■well-being of the people. This is the role that one day, in the natural order of things, the Prince of Wales will inherit. Already 1 he has started to play his part in the affairs of this great Empire, well equip ped, as many have found Mm, by sound judgment and good training, for the duties even now awaiting Mm and for the greater tasks which in the time to come will inevitably be his.

IDEAL FAMILY CIRCLE,

It would be strange were His Royal Highness not to fulfil these high hopes. He' has grown up under the constant care and wise control of parents who have always shown a marked understanding of their own responsibilities to their family, and the notion, still widely held, that the Prince of Wales and his brothers and sisters have been reared in an atmosphere of Royal etiquette and ceremcpy is as far from reality as it could possibly be. The organisation of the domestic household of the Royal Family differs very little, indeed, from that of any person of wealth and position, and in some respects are far simpler, for the Queen herself was brought up under such, conditions, and she knows and appreciates their value.

It was into such a home that the Prince was born, and it is the most natural thing in the world that, amid such surroundings, he should have developed into a manly, intelligent figure, , a quite typical son of a quite typical English gentleman’s family. Hardly out of the nursery, the bent of bis mind became apparent. He exhibited an unusual interest in natural history and mechanics, and a model railway at Sandringham occupied his almost constant attention. Similarly he was fascinated with wireless telegraphy, from the very moment when Mr Marconi exhibited his system before Ring Edward, who was accompanied by his little grandson* on the Royal yacht at Cowes.

The Prince was educated at home under the tutorship of Mr Hansell until May 1, 1907, when he went to Osborne as a naval cadet. This w"vs the real commencement of his experience beyond the family circle. The standard set for him by King George, and his faithful manner in which he sought to achieve it, is to be seen in ani ncident not generally known which occurred at the Royal Kaval College. The Prince was not well, and some extra delicacies were set before him, but, when he saw that the other cadets were not having the same fare, he declined to touch them. The commandant sought an explanation, ‘whereupon the Prince replied: ‘My father told me I was to have nothing different from the other boys, and, X must not disobey Mm.”

EXPEREENCES AT SEA. Hm experienee at sea was ins lather's over again. He made many friends among his colleagues, and he was very loath to sever his connection with it. But, however valuable this training may have been, it did not provide that liberal education necessary Jo the heir , to

th© Throne. La 1911, therefore, he went to Paris, where he studied for nearly a year. But it was his two years’ stay at Oxford that has left perhaps the most permanent effective influence on his life. The Prince went up as an undergraduate to Magdalen in 1912, and it was there that his personality of which we had glimpses in one or two minor incidents began to unfold itself. By nobody—and certainly not by the Prince himself —was the slightest effort made to keep him from the normal side of the college or from the other students, whether at work or play. He joined the Officers’ Training Corps as a private, and played Rugby for the Magdalen second fifteen. He ran with the boats in the eights week, enjoyed a fairly good game of polo, played average golf, and drove his car with more than average skill, to say nothing of speed. He attended lectures just as the other students did; for Ms president. Sir Hubert Warren, he wrote quite good English essays, and with Sir William Anson, on© of the greatest authorities on constitutional law, he read of those observances and practices a knowledge of which will be so necessary in. the days that are before him.

This was the happy and quit© uncongenial round of . the Prince’s ufe when the Great War came upon .the world. It stirred him deeply, just as it stirred the overwhelming majority of young and eager British manhood, and the Prince, with an impatience that could hardly bo restrained, pressed to be allowed to go out to France without delay. He had to be content first to undergo a period of training in the Grenadier Guards, but, that completed, he entered, with the vigour of impetuous youth the great struggle upon which the nation was so determinedly engaged. Op to that time the people had seen but little of him. Only on two or three occasions, such i-9 the brilliant investiture at Carnarvon Castle in 1911, his father’s coronation, and his installation as a Knight of the Garter (both in the same year), had he. made any formal public appearance. His first public duty was the laying of the foundation stone of St. Anselm’s Church, Kenuington, in June, 1914. The impression he made upon those who observed his bearing at these ceremonies was that of a rather shy youth, _ with a slight hesitancy and a suggestion of nervous ness in the initial of a ceremony of presentation. These impressions have been greatly modified by more recent events, but they reveal him as being entirely free from overbearing, self-confidence, or affectation, and as one who is thoroughly conscientious in the discharge of his every obligation. These are characteristics that will make his life always a duty rather than a pleasure, but they are some of the qualities that will help to endear Mm to all his future subjects in his far-flung realm.

To the brief chronicle of the life of the heir to the Throne, may he added a character sketch written at the time of his return from his visit to Canada and the United States. It was written of him: —“The Prince comes back to London to meet a welcome that will convey not only admiration and liking, but also thankfulness for a great Imperial service. According to his own confession, soldiering in France made a man of Mm; now the voyage to America has proved him to be a statesman. All those who have a knowledge of the private, as well as the public, account of the Prince of Wales' tour of Canada and Ms visit to the United States know that it was really and truly a great success. His charm of manner and his devotion to duty were seen to be accompanied by "a real ability and a fine firmness of character.” :>

Perhaps it is not generally known that the Prince’s speeches are Ms own speeches. They are not printed for him by officials and put into Ms mouth. They are his personal thoughts and re» flection on the events of the dav. In Canada these unconventional, hut princely, speeches delighted everyone.