By the time Prince
William was the age that his eldest son is now, he had already completed
his first year at boarding school.
That one — Ludgrove, in
Wokingham, Berkshire — was among the educational establishments the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge visited when looking for a new school for Prince George,
who celebrated his ninth birthday just a few weeks ago.
Instead, they alighted upon
£21,000-a-year Lambrook School, near Ascot, just a 15-minute drive from
four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage which, from next week, will become their new home
on the Queen’s Home Park estate at Windsor.
The decision has not been
without controversy. As Richard Kay wrote in yesterday’s Mail, at the time of
an exploding cost-of-living crisis, taking possession of a third home could
look clumsily insensitive.
However, it says much about
the way in which this modern royal couple, future King and Queen but first and
foremost parents, have made the lives of their children, and indeed family life
as a whole, the focus of everything they do.
Having had varied experiences
of schooling themselves, they have a clear vision of what they want for their
children — Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old
Prince Louis — and that appears to include the opportunity to have as close to normal family life as possible.
