We had a tip that Harry was about to take the controls and make his first flight of the grading course. The first picture of him taking the controls of an aircraft would be great for the paper, even if it meant intruding on Harry’s course.
We drove down to Middle Wallop to see if there was a place from which we could get a picture without falling foul of the Ministry of Defence police or Harry’s protection officers. And as luck would have it the base had its own museum of flying and an observation area where members of the public could watch planes take off and land. Within minutes of the two photographers getting out their long lenses we were spotted by the protection officers, who were sitting having a cup of tea in the museum’s café. They were relaxed as usual, but it was clear that if Harry didn’t want to be pictured we would be wasting our time.
One of the officers was willing to go and check with Harry to see if there was a way we could get a picture if we then left straight after. He came back and told us this was agreed. It was a compromise but I felt it was worth it as the best way of getting our picture without winding Harry up.
True to his word, after about an hour the bright yellow Slingsby began taxiing towards the runway only a few yards from where we were waiting. The aircraft’s large glass cockpit which served the rookie pilots well also gave us the advantage of being able to take a good picture of the prince as he passed by. The small plane rolled towards us, and straight away we could see it was Harry at the controls. He had even decided to help us by lowering his face mask so that we could get a clear shot. I remember thinking that was good of Harry. It showed he was playing the game and holding up his side of the bargain.
With the photographs in the bag, Harry’s plane continued past as it made its way to the runway for take-off. The Sun photographer checked he had what he needed by looking at the small digital screen on the back of his camera and gave me the thumbs-up.
It was clear we were not the only paper to have had the same tip that today was the day Harry would make his first flight. The photographer from a rival paper had got similar shots, thanks to the agreement that we had made with the protection officers.
Now, as we packed up and prepared to leave the base as agreed, the other photographer stood his ground. Although he had a shot of Harry in the cockpit, he was determined to stay and try to improve on the picture. In fairness, the shot he had hoped to bag was of Harry in his full flying gear walking towards the plane in a scene that might resemble Tom Cruise in the famous Eighties film Top Gun. But it was immediately clear that there was no way of capturing Harry in such a pose from the only vantage point available. By the time he either climbed in or out of the cockpit he would be a long way from view and inside one of the base’s many huge hangars.
Despite this the photographer refused to budge. I can remember feeling quite angry that the agreement I had made with Harry was going to be broken by one of our rivals. The Royal job is often about playing the long game. Harry had done his bit, but now it would look as though I was breaking my side of the bargain.
When the protection officers came over to ask why we had not yet left, I explained what had happened. The officer who had brokered the deal said: ‘Harry’s not going to like this. He was under the impression that as soon as you had your picture you would pull off and leave him alone to continue his training.’
It was frustrating because I had no authority to tell another paper’s photographer to leave the base. Yet if he continued to refuse, Harry would hold me responsible for going back on my word. That meant that in future he would be less likely to agree to gifting us a picture, and why should he? A deal is a deal. With Harry’s plane now safely up in the skies above, I had no choice but to engage in what you might call a ‘heated discussion’ with the reluctant snapper. After a few angry moments he finally saw sense and agreed to pull off. By the time Harry was back on the ground we had all moved away and the pictures of him making his first flight made a strong page lead in the following day’s paper.
It was by no means the first time I had struggled to persuade other photographers to play the game and ensure we got what we wanted without upsetting Harry too much.
In April 2007 Harry had joined Chelsy and her friends in the Caribbean to watch England take part in the cricket World Cup. When the national side arrived in Barbados for their group game against the West Indies, the prince had found he was a sitting duck for photographers.
Barbados is famous for the fact that all its beaches are public. The government made the rule many years ago to stop the rich and famous from buying up large swathes of coastline and erecting barbed wire fences. As a result, Barbados has become known as the paparazzi paradise, ideal for bounty-hunting photographers hoping to bag a picture of bikini-clad celebrities on holiday.
In reality, famous faces who want to avoid being pictured steer well clear of Barbados. If you ever see a picture in a newspaper or magazine of a pop or reality TV star splashing about in Barbados, it has probably been set up by their publicity-hungry agent.
Because of the lack of privacy, when Harry and Chelsy tried to visit the island during the cricket they found themselves pinned inside their hotel, unable to even drive anywhere without being followed by photographers on motorbikes. At one point Harry felt so hounded he sent one of his trusted protection officers down to my hotel to try and strike a deal. The prince was offering to let himself be pictured on the beach in return for us leaving him alone. Although it was very tempting to agree to the deal and get the pictures in the bag, I had to explain that I had no control over the freelance photographers who successfully plied their trade on the island. The reality was if Harry posed for pictures on the beach, the following day there would be even more photographers camped outside his hotel trying to get a shot.
It was ironic, therefore, that in the end Harry and Chelsy were pictured jet-skiing further up the coast by the local paparazzi, who had been tipped off by their network of barmen. While we all stayed well clear to give Harry the space, these bounty hunters filled their memory cards with fantastic shots of the prince. It was very frustrating, but part and parcel of being a Royal reporter. If your face is one of the few Harry recognizes, you are going to get the blame if he is pictured.
Back in Middle Wallop we were happy that we had the pictures we needed. After all there are only so many times you can publish the same kind of photograph of Harry in the same outfit flying the same plane.
For the rest of his grading course Harry was left well alone. And in that vacuum he was able to knuckle down to his training.
There have been many turning points in Harry’s military career but his performance on the course ranks up there as one of the most significant. Had he failed, the chances are he would have quit the Army. But not only did he pass the grading course in the required time, he did so with flying colours.
As an Army Air Corps source said at the time: ‘Harry is a natural pilot. He breezed through the course and was genuinely one of the most gifted candidates in his intake. There was a great deal of pressure on him to pass, but he was able to put that to the back of his mind and focus on the job in hand. He showed he was more than capable of handling an aircraft and quickly mastered the basics. He still has a long way to go before making it as an Army Air Corps pilot, but he now has the green light to continue with his training.’
His success at Middle Wallop was a breakthrough for the young Royal desperate to forge a future in the military. It meant he successfully made it onto the Army Air Corps course which would turn him into a fully-fledged helicopter pilot. And after many months of uncertainty about his future, Harry now knew what the next two and a half years would involve.
He was posted to the Army Air Corps to begin his training for real. And when Clarence House announced his successful completion of the grading course they even made a reference to the fact that Harry could eventually be heading back to Afghanistan. In the statement his spokesman said: ‘If Prince Harry qualifies as an Army Air Corps pilot, he will, like an
y officer, be available for operational service wherever the ACC flies.’ In short, Harry’s plan to get back to the front line by any means, initially dismissed as unworkable, was now beginning to take shape. The warrior prince was on track to reinvent his military career and return to finish the job he had started in the war zone. His success caused a huge sigh of relief for his private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton. The young officer who had threatened to leave the Army was now excitedly preparing to embark on the next phase of his military career. Harry the soldier was preparing to become Harry the pilot.
While the work was only just about to begin for Harry, his determination to become a pilot had given him a new focus. A year after he had been pulled out of the front line he would be entering his first few weeks on the Pilot’s Course. It seemed that all the anger and disappointment of being pulled out of Afghanistan had been consigned to the past. Harry now had a new mission, and it was a mission which ultimately would indeed see him return to war.
This turning point for Harry was to have a profound effect on his life, not least because it meant he would have a focus for the coming months and years. But also it gave him a reason for staying in the Army and continuing with a career that, despite everything, he still loved.
CHAPTER 13
THE ‘PAKI’ ROW
What a difference a year makes! It was Christmas 2008 and Prince Harry strolled beside his brother William as they joined their grandmother the Queen for the traditional Royal get-together at her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Just twelve months earlier Harry was in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The press knew he was there, but under the blackout agreement, the general public had no idea. Even the thousands of flag-waving Royalists who make the Christmas Day pilgrimage to Sandringham every year to watch the Windsors hadn’t seemed to notice when Harry was missing from his family’s number in 2007. While the Royals were tucking into a festive feast, the third in line to the throne was about to be treated to a curried goat made by the Gurkha soldiers he was serving with in the war zone.
Now, a year on, the crowds outside St Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham whooped with delight as they saw one of their favourite Royals stroll past. At these set-piece family occasions Harry is always one of the major attractions. As soon as he comes into view they shout his name in the hope of catching his eye and receiving a wave or a cheeky smile. At times when you are an observer it can almost feel quite embarrassing seeing how Harry’s popularity eclipses that of his fellow Royals.
By 2008 his popularity with the British public had soared. He was the rock and roll prince who wore his heart on his sleeve and the public couldn’t get enough of him. Crass outfits, drunken escapades and a seemingly turbulent love life did nothing to diminish the public’s adoration of Diana’s youngest son.
And in 2008 there was even more reason for the crowds to shout Harry’s name. By then they were all aware of how he had served his country in the front line. The fact he had missed the previous year because of his role as a soldier was not lost on the gushing members of the public. As ever Harry played to the crowd, waving and smiling and poking fun at his brother William, who was sporting a beard for the first time. This was Harry at his best. This was the cheeky young prince that of all those who travel to Norfolk on Christmas Day out of a sense of patriotic zeal had come to see.
For his part, Harry had reason to feel good. He had passed his flying grading and was just weeks away from embarking on a new chapter in his life as a trainee military helicopter pilot. But as is so often the case with the Royals, he was blissfully unaware that in less than three weeks’ time he would be splashed all over the front pages again. TV and radio stations all over the world would be dragging out the old questions about his judgement and suitability as a senior Royal.
For once Harry could be forgiven for not seeing this coming. The storm that was about to engulf him would stem from something stupid he had done more than three years earlier. He could hardly have predicted that a long-forgotten piece of carelessness was about to come back and bite him firmly in the proverbial backside.
On 10 January 2009, with the New Year less than two weeks old, Harry received a late night call. It was from Miguel Head, the PR adviser Harry and William had poached from the communications office of the Ministry of Defence.
‘Mig’ – as he was affectionately known – was a likeable and professional press officer who had got to know Harry at the height of the media blackout arrangements covering his trip to Afghanistan. For several years the boys had been desperate to have their own press officer, someone with whom they could work and get to know and trust. Up until Mig’s appointment in the autumn of 2008, the media affairs of Wills and Harry had been dealt with by Prince Charles’s team at Clarence House. This arrangement had worked well while the post-Diana media agreement was still in place, but there had been a number of problems in later years, after the princes had stopped being protected by the fact they were in full-time education.
Harry, in particular, was unhappy with the advice and guidance he was given by the men in grey suits who were, after all, employed by and answerable to his father. He felt that both he and William should have their own press secretary, to whom they could turn in a crisis and whose advice would be helpful the rest of the time.
Mig’s appointment was a genius move by the princes. He had a far more approachable manner than some of the Prince of Wales’s media team at Clarence House. He was also far closer to the boys in age, which must have come as a breath of fresh air after years of dealing with people more than twice as old.
And Mig had a proven track record. He had worked for the Ministry of Defence for long enough to build up good working relationships with journalists and was seen as someone the media could work with, rather than battle against.
In reality Prince Charles’s team had developed a reputation for being confrontational with the media. They were not willing to forge close relationships with journalists and, like Prince Charles, appeared to see the press as the enemy. When trouble arose, they were aggressive rather than conciliatory. A call to the palace press office could often result in a call back from one of the Prince of Wales’s cut-throat media lawyers. And this was an atmosphere which had not gone unnoticed among Fleet Street editors, who objected to being told what they could and could not print by what they saw as ‘jumped-up’ civil servants funded by the taxpayer.
The last straw was the handling of the fall-out from Princess Diana’s inquest verdict. William and Harry felt let down by the fact they were told what to say and how to react to a verdict which covered an issue so close to their hearts. A month later the job of press secretary to William and Harry was advertised, but insiders already knew it was going to Mig. With both the princes pursuing military careers at the time, he was the natural choice given his experience working with top brass and the defence media corps.
His first media event was the motorbike trek in South Africa and it had passed off without any negative press. Recently he had gleefully released the announcement that Harry had passed his flying grading and he was on message when it came to the young Royal’s desire to one day return to the front line.
But Mig’s first real test was to come out of blue sky. Late on a Saturday evening he received a call from the News of the World, Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday tabloid. They had bought a video which appeared to have been filmed by Harry himself. Although it was old and dated back to Harry’s final days at Sandhurst in 2006, there was no denying the seriousness of what it contained.
As the cadets waited to catch a flight to Cyprus for their final training exercise, Harry had wandered around the room filming his fellow cadets and offering his own running commentary. At one stage, as Harry panned around the room, he spotted a fellow member of his Sandhurst platoon and uttered the words: ‘And here is our Paki friend.’
To the horror of his new press secretary, Harry was clearly making a reference to a fellow cadet who had joined Sandhurst on attachment from
the Pakistani military. There was no denying the voice was Harry’s. Nor was there any chance of suggesting the video was anything but genuine.
To make matters worse, the News of the World had also obtained a clip in which Harry then refers to one of his fellow white cadets as ‘looking like a rag head’ – a derogatory term used to refer to people wearing turbans.
This call was certainly going to be a baptism of fire for Mig, who had only been in his new role for a matter of weeks. He telephoned Harry straight away to break the bad news that this video was going to make the front page of the following day’s News of the World. A close source to Harry revealed how his initial response was to confirm that he had made the video but to insist that it was so old it didn’t matter. However, Mig was well aware that this excuse would not wash with the tabloid or the millions of people who would get to hear about it the following morning.
Mig’s advice was to issue an immediate apology for the ‘Paki’ comment. For many years it was an unacceptable term which had come to mean a racist and derogatory way of describing people of Pakistani origin. He knew that while many would dismiss Harry’s careless use of language as harmless, there would be just as many people who would take great offence. Once again the Nazi outfit gaffe would be dragged up and questions would inevitably be asked about the young Royal’s attitude towards ethnic minorities. This was a story that could not simply be brushed off as old and not relevant.
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