6 famous Eton College alums, from Prince Harry to Tom Hiddleston – with Prince George set to join them
Besides Princess Diana’s sons William and Harry, actors Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston, and authors George Orwell and Ian Fleming, were all educated at the famous boarding school
A world-renowned boys’ boarding school near Windsor, only around 30 km from central London, Eton was also attended by Prince Harry and both Princess Diana’s father and brother. Established in 1440 as a free boarding school to house and educate boys from less-fortunate families, it has since grown to become one of Britain’s most prestigious institutions with school fees costing up to US$80,000 for one school year.
Here are some of the most notable alums of Eton College, often called “the nursery of England’s gentlemen”.
Prince Harry
Like his older brother, Prince Harry also attended Eton College – however, the Duke of Sussex admitted to having a difficult time at the school, unlike William. He was enrolled in 1998, a year after his mother, the late Princess Diana, died in a car accident in Paris.
“Sport held me together,” he said in an interview with Time. “I was one of those kids at school who did not enjoy classroom work. If it wasn’t for the sports field, and the amount of sports that were on offer, there’s no way I would have stayed in school.”
In his autobiography titled Spare, Prince Harry wrote that his brother had asked him to “pretend I didn’t know him. For the last two years, he explained, Eton had been his sanctuary. No kid brother tagging along, pestering him with questions, pushing up on his social circle. He was forging his own life, and he wasn’t willing to give that up”.
Boris Johnson
