PRINCE'S PASSIONS

As well as a studious side, Charles excelled at the sport of kings and catching the eyes of the ladies!

It was the biggest moment of his life, so it was no surprise that as his mother the Queen placed the coronet on 20-yearold Prince Charles' head during his investiture as Prince of Wales, he looked mildly terrified.

A worldwide audience of 500 million people watched the live broadcast of the ceremony from Caernarfon Castle in Wales on July 1, 1969. Charles had spent nine weeks at Aberystwyth University studying Welsh so he could make his acceptance speech in the language. And thankfully, the day went without a hitch.

Charles looked regal in a velvet gown with ermine cape and the Prince of Wales coronet - which had to be made specially for him because the previous one had vanished (it turned out the last Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, had taken it with him when he was exiled following his abdication in 1936).

Poet laureate Sir John Betjeman marked the occasion by writing, "You knelt a boy, you rose a man/And thus your lonelier life began." Looking back, those words seemed very prophetic.

After leaving school, the young prince had gone to Cambridge University, where he became the first British heir apparent to earn a degree (a Bachelor of Arts).

A career in the military was always on the cards and he first joined the Royal Air Force while still at university. After training as a jet pilot, he then switched to the Royal Navy and served for five years, during which time he learned to fly helicopters and commanded a minehunter.