The celebrity items in the papers for the last few days are full of stuff about Prince William’s commissioning and graduation from the UK’s equivalent of The Trade School on the Hudson. While it is very nice that he is now Second Lefttenant William Something-or-an-other Wales, I can’t help but notice that all of the other new lieutenants in his rank (or file) seem to be carrying a sword, while our William has a rifle. Any significance to that? Surely he could afford to get his own sword.
You know, it might be the other way 'round. Maybe the prince gets the more modern weapon, because he’s the hotshot. That’s just a wild guess; I know nothing about royal princes, and only a little about finger prince.
The Royal arms, debruised by a white label of five points in chief.
Oh, you weren’t talking heraldry?!
I saw that on TV and I wondered why William was the only one wearing a red sash on his uniform. Is that a badge of his royal rank or his military rank?
Thanks. I was going by the Fox-Davies cite, which says that the eldest son gets a plain white label of three points, and the eldest son’s eldest son a plain white label of five points. (There are marks on labels to indicate cadency for younger sons.) Apparently, though, Prince William got a special differentiation to honor Diana.
The red sash and rifle were explained by The Guardian as due to his platoon having won the right to carry the sovereign’s banner, whatever that may be. Story
William was also a finalist for the Sword of Honor, Sandhurst’s award for best-performing cadet. The Sword went to a woman cadet, for the third time ever.
Maybe the rifle was to do with his role as “marker” at the end of the row - the others use the marker to keep the line straight, maybe his having a rifle rather than sword maakes the marker easier to identify & facilitates this ?
Having read the other contributions here, it strikes me that 2LT Wales has a rifle, and a red sash, for the same reason: he is part of the color guard platoon. It makes sense to me that the color guard would be armed with something more than ceremonial weapons. I don’t think he is the “marker” because the “marker” is typically on the right flank of the first rank of the formation. Neither to I think it his stature because when forming for parade by height the system is form from front to rear and right to left with the tallest soldiers in the front rank and along the right flank. The color guard thing, however, rings true. I’ll buy that explination.
Gawd, could he look any *more *like a storybook Prince? Quite a handsome chap y’all got there! le sigh
Hm, a King-sized king for a change. And I may just about outlive Charles and see William on the throne.
Wouldn’t he be Leftenant Windsor? That’s the family name, isn’t it?
Actually, his family name’s Mountbatten-Windsor.
Extrapolating from Cecil’s classic What did Prince Andrew’s superiors in the Royal Navy call him?, he’d go’ll by Lieutenant HRH, the Prince William.
Mind you, if he took that cap off you’d see that he’s got the Windsor early baldness gene, and he’s got it bad.
So he going to Iraq or Afganistan?
This gets complex, and Her Majesty is responsible for one part of the complexity.
First, if you receive a title, your “surname of use” thereafter is that title, although (1) your original family name is “in reserve” for descendants not entitled to the title, and (2) the modern tradition is to make the title from the surname, so that Sir Lawrence Olivier, on being ennobled, became Sir Lawrence, Baron Olivier, and was thereafter known as Lord Olivier. Princess Di’s brother bears both the family surname and title of Spencer, his ancestor named Spencer having been created Earl Spencer. But if the Queen became minded to honor the wisdom of the Perfect Master, he would thereafter be known not as Cecil Adams but as Cecil, Duke of Omniscience.
It follows, therefore, that Elizabeth’s actual name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and filling in “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” in the one-inch blank labelled “surname” could no doubt get tiring for her. Her actual signature is “Elizabeth R.” – the “R” standing for Regina, Queen.
Charles is Prince of Wales. His legal signature is Charles, P. Wales. William is “Prince William of Wales” and his “surname of use” is Wales.
Now, their house name is Windsor. It was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha from 1901, when Queen Victoria died, until 1917, when it was changed by royal warrant in a wave of Germanophobia during World War I. And Elizabeth II’s titled descendants, in the line of succession, retain that title by another royal warrant she issued in 1960, despite the fact that it’s passing through the female line. “Mountbatten-Windsor” is the hyphenated surname, acknowledging both the House of Battenberg/Mountbatten and the House of Windsor, which her descendants not entitled to titles will bear, again by royal warrant. (Somebody with a really good knowledge of British honorary titles can sort out who would eventually get this surname; children of younger sons is what I think it applies to, so that Harry’s prospective kids would bear it, and Andrew’s daughters do.)
One small exception to this whole rigmarole: When members of the royal family sign parish registers and the like, as participants or witnesses to official acts (e.g., marriage licenses and certificates of marriage, certificates of baptism, etc.) they do it with given name and house name, so that Elizabeth signed her own marriage license as “Elizabeth Windsor.”
According to many newspaper reports, no. Despite the increased risk both to him and those around him I think that this is a mistake. Those I know who’ve been there tell me the situation is nowhere near as bad as the press makes out. I would rather him blooded so that when he becomes King, he will know what the politicians are getting the country into.
[shrug] Some chicks dig that, don’t ask me why. And a soldier doesn’t need hair, and a king’s crown will fit better without it.
IIRC, he wanted to be deployed to one of the warzones, but his superiors wouldn’t allow it.