From student prince at Gordonstoun to King Charles III
THE country's new King Charles III spent five years boarding at Gordonstoun, one of the UK’s leading independent schools.
The decision to send him to a British school was a significant departure from the Royal norm - he was the first Prince of Wales to be educated at a school, as opposed to private tutors.
On his first day, May 1, 1962, Prince Charles was flown to RAF Lossiemouth in a plane piloted by his father the Duke of Edinburgh, who had been one of Gordonstoun’s first pupils.
With the ethos of the school focused on preparing students for life, and not just exams, the young prince enjoyed a range of activities away from the classroom, including being a member of Her Majesty's Coastguard Unit, taking lead roles in drama productions, singing in the school choir and playing trumpet and cello.
He was a member of the debating society, an accomplished potter, and went on regular sailing and walking expeditions in the Highlands.
He 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; he achieved above average results which secured him a place to study archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University.
His interest in archaeology was said to have begun at Gordonstoun, when he organised a dig in local cliff caves containing prehistoric relics.
The future King’s brothers Prince Andrew and Prince Edward also went to Gordonstoun. Princess Anne was not eligible as it was at that time an all-boys school, but she sent her children Peter Philips and Zara Tindall to the school.
Other famous alumni include Olympian Heather Stanning, musician Roy Williamson, member of The Corries and composer of Flower of Scotland, author William Boyd, Duncan Jones, son of rock musician David Bowie, Jason Connery, son of Sir Sean Connery and Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail.
Gordonstoun was one of the first boarding schools to become co-educational in 1972. Today it has over 500 students.
One of the most repeated quotes associated with King Charles III and Gordonstoun is that he reportedly dubbed it “Colditz in kilts”. Whilst the origins of this catchy ‘quote’ remain unclear, when he has spoken publicly about his time at Gordonstoun, King Charles III has always described it as a positive and enriching experience.
In order to protect its former pupil’s confidentiality, Gordonstoun has never publicly commented on HRH’s experiences at school.
The school was founded in 1934 by a German Jewish educationist Kurt Hahn, after he fled the Nazis. His pioneering vision was to create well-rounded citizens of the world, with a focus on life skills and service as much as academic achievement.
For King Charles III, this included taking lead roles in the school’s drama productions. A striking image of him taking on the role of Macbeth in the Shakespeare play made the front pages of the newspapers in 1965. His performance as the King was reported to be outstanding and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh joined other parents to watch the final performance.
Other roles included the Duke of Exeter in Shakespeare’s Henry V and the Pirate King in the school’s 1967 production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta ‘The Pirates of Penzance’.
His artistic talents extended to pottery - including being awarded a silver medal in Gordonstoun’s exhibition of projects for four hedgehogs. When it came to sports, he was said to have loved fishing, liked hockey and “loathed” cricket.
He was also a member of the school coastguard and in 2017 spoke about how he had to do “real-life coastguard work”.
At a Buckingham Palace ceremony recognising volunteers he joked: “We had a coastguard lookout on the coast on the cliffs, and most of the time we spent hoping that some enormous aircraft carrier would run around so that we could rescue the entire crew with what was then a very complicated set of breeches buoys.”
Expeditions and sailing are core parts of the curriculum at Gordonstoun and King Charles III followed in his father’s footsteps in taking on these activities at school.
In 1964 he ‘signed on’ with the Royal Navy – which he later joined – undertaking a week’s training at Portsmouth naval base with the cadet force from Gordonstoun to be taught basic sailing, rowing and navigation.
At Gordonstoun he lived in Windmill Lodge, which is now a female boarding house.
He eventually followed in the footsteps of his father by becoming guardian – or head boy – of the school in his last year, having previously been head of his boarding house.
In 1966, Prince Charles went on an exchange visit to Timbertop, the outback annexe of Geelong Church of England Grammar School, near Melbourne. Australian. Schoolboy David Manton, the son of a wealthy sheep farmer, visited Gordonstoun as part of the swap.
In a BBC radio interview in 1969, he spoke of his time in Australia, saying it was “rigorous and tougher” than Gordonstoun but that he loved it. He went on expeditions into the bush every weekend and ran two cross-countries a week.
King Charles III’s time at the school was not entirely without incident. In July 1964 it was reported he fell ill with pneumonia while camping out on the royal estate at Balmoral along with three other boys from Gordonstoun and in October 1966, he broke his nose while playing rugby at school.
His school essay book, said to contain the Prince’s thoughts on topics such as the monarchy and democracy, vanished, with foreign publishing agents said to be offering thousands of pounds for it. It was later recovered by police.
The biggest scandal was over what was dubbed the ‘Cherry Brandy Affair’ in June 1963 - when the Prince bought and drank a cherry brandy at a hotel on the island of Lewis.
Not only was he under the legal drinking age, it was also forbidden for Gordonstoun boys to drink liquor. The story made the headlines after two journalists drinking nearby heard what had happened.
Mr Robert Chew, the headmaster of the school, was said to have spoken “strongly” to him about the incident.
He later spoke about the incident in a radio interview saying he had gone to the bar to escape “people looking in the windows” at him while he was waiting for a meal. Having never been in a bar before, he said the “most sensible” thing to do was to have a drink.
On his time at the school, the former prince said: "I’m glad I went to Gordonstoun. It wasn’t the toughness of the place – that’s all much exaggerated by report – it was the general character of the education there, with the emphasis on self-reliance to develop a rounded human being.
"I didn’t enjoy school as much as I might have, but that was only because I’m happier at home than anywhere else; but Gordonstoun developed my will-power and self control, helped me to discipline myself."
In a House of Lords speech in 1975 he added: “I am always astonished by the amount of rot talked about Gordonstoun and the careless use of ancient clichés used to describe it. It was only tough in the sense that it demanded more of you as an individual than most other schools
did – mentally or physically. I am lucky in that I believe it taught me a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative.”
