The forgotten Prince William who just wanted to live his own life
PRINCE William is one of the most popular royals, after his son George, but back in the ’60s it was another Prince William who was grabbing the attention
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AS second in line the throne, Prince William is perhaps one of the most famous members of the royal family. Naturally the spotlight falls on him more than most other royals, but back in the ’60s
another Prince William was often under the spotlight.
Something of a forgotten royal today, Prince William of Gloucester was often depicted in the papers as the playboy prince — dashing, handsome, intelligent, adventurous, sporty but also unconventional for a royal. He struggled against the strictures imposed on him by being a member of the royal family, which put him out of favour with royal elders but made him an idol of young Prince Charles, who named his son in William of Gloucester’s honour.
He is the subject of the new documentary, The Other Prince William, airing on SBS this evening at 7.30pm, which focuses on the forbidden romance that earned him the disapproval of the family firm.
William was born in 1941, the son of Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, brother of King George VI. His mother was Lady Alice Christabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott, who had married the Duke in 1935 and had tried for years to have children. When William finally came along in 1941 he was a treasured child, adored by both of his parents, and was fourth in line to the throne.
In 1942, William’s uncle the Duke of Kent was killed in an air crash, just before he was to take up the post of Governor-General in Australia, so the Duke of Gloucester was put forward to take his place.
The Duke arrived in January 1945 to take up the post bringing William and younger son Richard. While the Duke was not always popular with the Australian public, his children were. Photographs of William while he was in Australia show a striking resemblance to a young Prince Charles and today’s Prince George.
While in Australia the media delighted in the antics of the cheeky young Prince. One report talked about him being the first royal born in a private hospital, giving him something of a common touch and pronounced him a “delightful, charming, normal, happy little boy.”
In 1945 after developing an ear infection, he was sent from Canberra to Sydney’s Prince Alfred Hospital to have his adenoids removed. He spent almost three months in hospital before he was well enough to leave. In December that same year he developed a mild case of whooping cough.
At a tree planting ceremony at La Perouse in 1946 he was given a spade but complained that it was too heavy and used his hands to dig a hole to plant a pine tree.
A steeplechase race was named the Prince William Stakes in his honour in 1946.
In 1947, the Duke was recalled to Britain on other duties. His son’s return to the UK meant he was able to serve as a page boy at the wedding of then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947. The other page boy at the wedding was Prince Michael of Kent.
In 1958 William went to Eton, according to family tradition, and in 1960 began studying history at Cambridge, then business and politics at Stanford University in the US (he was the first royal to go to an American university). He also developed a passion for sport, skiing, fast cars and flying, becoming the youngest royal to earn his pilot’s licence.
After graduating in 1963 he returned to Australia spending two months touring sheep and cattle stations. Apart from doing things any other tourist might do, including going to the Melbourne Cup and enjoying sights such as the Barrier Reef, he also stayed as a guest of the Governor-General and met with Prime Minister Bob Menzies.
When it came time to join the work force, William eschewed the usual military career followed by most royals and joined the diplomatic corps. He was attracted to the foreign office because there was a certain amount of liberation being far away from the family. He was posted in Lagos in 1965 but transferred to Tokyo in 1968, piloting his own plane to get there.
In Tokyo he met Zsuzsi Starkloff, a twice-divorced, Hungarian mother who was working as a model. Starkloff was seven years older than the prince and a divorcee. As soon as word of the romance got back to the palace, it rang alarm bells of potentially being another King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson affair. Even though he was, by then, sixth in line to the throne and unlikely to ever become king, the parallels with Edward were upsetting and the royal family was concerned about its image with the public.
So much so that Princess Margaret was dispatched to Tokyo, ostensibly to attend a business conference on trade relations but also to meet Zsuzsi. Having had her own romance with divorced father Peter Townsend stifled in the ’50s, Margaret cautioned William about the difficulties.
When William’s father suffered a stroke in 1970, he was recalled to England. Zsuzsi followed him, which increased tensions between William and his family. While he had wanted to marry Zsuzsi he eventually gave in to the pressure and the couple parted, with Starkloff heading to the US.
William focused on his duties with the family estates, preparing to succeed his ailing father as Duke. He threw himself into his passions for car racing and aviation. But it was while taking part in an air race in 1972 that his plane crashed shortly after takeoff. He and his co-pilot Vyrell Mitchell were killed almost instantly.
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