20 March 2024 , 11:24
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It's clear that King Charles takes great delight in being a grandfather. His joy when he is around his grandchildren is clear to see, and Prince William has previously described him as being "brilliant" in his role as 'Grandpa Wales'.
Charles first became a grandad back in July 2013, when William and Kate welcomed their eldest child, Prince George. The pair have gone on to forge a sweet bond; just like Charles, George is growing up knowing he is destined to be King one day. And as such, Charles can relate to the pressures facing his young grandson.
Just recently, a video resurfaced on social media showing the monarch being asked about George's first day at school. It was captured in 2017, shortly after the young Prince had been filmed arriving at Thomas's Battersea. "Your grandson had his first day at school today, did you give him any advice?" a reporter asked the royal, to which he joked: "Of course not! He wouldn't take it from me, I don't think at that age. I shall be interested to hear how he got on. At that age you don't worry quite so much about going to school as you do when you get a bit older. It's all business of meeting new people and wondering, you know."
Charles was then told that little Prince George looked anxious as he approached the school gates of Thomas's Battersea for the first time. "Oh, poor old thing," responded the doting granddad. "But it's being left there to have to get on with it when the parents go away that's always the problem. It's good for you in the end I suppose. It's character building."
It's no secret that King Charles had a terrible time at school; he would regularly send letters home, documenting his misery. In one note penned in 1963, he wrote: "The people in my dormitory are foul. Goodness, they are horrid. I don't know how anybody could be so foul. They throw slippers all night long or hit me with pillows or rush across the room and hit me as hard as they can, then beetle back again as fast as they can, waking up everyone else in the dormitory at the same time."
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In another, he wrote: "I hardly get any sleep in the House because I snore and I get hit on the head all the time. It's absolute hell."
King Charles left Gordonstoun in 1967 with five O-levels in English Language, English Literature, History, Latin and French and two A-levels in History and French. The Queen and Prince Philip also sent Prince Andrew and Prince Edward to Gordonstoun, and Prince Philip had also studied there. King Charles' sister, Princess Anne, was not educated at Gordonstoun, which at that time was for boys only, but she later sent her two children, Zara and Peter to study at the school.