Prince Harry inadvertently set off a St James’s Palace alarm after a drunken fall, according to a former soldier.
The ex-soldier, who did not want to be named, said that the Duke of Sussex had fallen into a sentry box while inebriated and bumped into an emergency response button.
Harry was discovered by three soldiers from the Guards Division, who reportedly found him on the floor and in a “mess”.
The prince, who was 27 at the time of the incident in 2012, was then helped back to his apartment.
The former soldier was prompted to come forward with the revelation after being angered by claims about the royal family in Harry’s memoir Spare.
A former member of the Guards Division and part of the Quick Response Force that found Harry, he told The Sun how the prince was “blind drunk”.
He recalled: “He was a mess, he was on the floor drooling on himself. When we tried to get him up he was uncooperative and abusive.”
The ex-soldier was discharged following more than a decade’s service after being injured by shrapnel when an IED exploded near him in Afghanistan.
He also claimed that the Duke had a reputation in the military for being a “social hand grenade” and recalled stories of his drunken antis being told at Wellington Barracks.
Harry was off duty and is believed to have been out with civilian friends at the time of the sentry box incident.
The incident was not reported in the handover guard report and the source said a commanding officer called the guard room the next day to insist the incident be kept secret.
