The surprising link Prince Philip shares with 18-year-old Princess Elizabeth of Belgium
PRINCE PHILIP shares a surprising link with the 18-year-old heir apparent to the Belgian throne.
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Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Elizabeth of Belgium have attended two different schools founded by the same German educationalist, it has been revealed. The Queen's husband is a proud alumnus of Gordonstoun School, a boarding school based in Moray, Scotland.
The school, which heavily focuses its curriculum not just on education but also on sports, service and seamanship, was founded in 1934 by German educator Kurt Hahn.
Three decades later, Mr Hahn founded UWC Atlantic College in Wales, a college which teaches the rigorous IB system for 16 to 19 year olds.
Among the notable students at this Welsh institute, there is Princess Elizabeth of Belgium, the heir apparent to her country's throne.
Elizabeth, Duchess of Brabant, was accepted into the sixth form college in March 2018, as confirmed by the Belgian royal palace.
The teenager is to graduate at UWC Atlantic College this summer - but has spent the past two months in Belgium, where she returned after her institute was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic and the following nationwide lockdown.
This abrupt disruption to her studies doesn't appear to have ruined Princess Elizabeth's plans.
As announced by the Belgian royal palace earlier this month, the princess is to join the Royal Military Academy in Belgium in autumn, just like her father King Philippe did before her.
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Among the classes she will attend at the academy, there are ones focused on social and military sciences.
All the officers at the Belgium Army, Air Force, Navy and Medical attend this prestigious academy.
Princess Elizabeth has been recently photographed jogging outside the palace, a sign she is already gearing up for the tough institute.
The royal is also set to start at the end of August a four-week initiation camp which will further prepare her to the new school.
King Philippe, who attended the academy between 1978 and 1981, returned there last year to deliver a speech, in which he recalled the big impact the training he had received there has had on his life.
He said: "I remember it intensely. I was proud.
"It was like a whole new world opened up for me.
"The iron discipline, the physical training and the high academic standards will test you.
"They will also make you know yourself better.”
Just like Princess Elizabeth chose to attend her father's old institute, all the sons of Prince Philip were enrolled at the same high school attended by the Duke of Edinburgh.
While Prince Philip was at Gordonstoun from 1936, Prince Charles joined the boarding school in 1962.
His brothers Prince Andrew and Prince Edward followed in his footsteps later in the 1970s and 1980s.