Queen Elizabeth II wanted both William and Harry to see active service fighting alongside other British soldiers in Afghanistan, but it was decided that it was too risky to send the second-in-line to the throne, a former head of the Army has said.
Although Harry and William both wanted to fight, the revelation that William was kept safe seems likely to fuel the sense that William was consistently given preferential treatment to Harry by the institution due to his position in the hierarchy, a key claim of Harry’s book, Spare, which described William having a bigger bedroom and better furniture than him when they were children.
The revelation of the queen’s thoughts on the matter was made by the former head of the British army, General Sir Mike Jackson, in a new TV documentary.
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Jackson said Elizabeth expressed her view that both her grandsons should fight, saying that she told him at a meeting: “My grandsons have taken my shilling, therefore they must do their duty.”
But, Jackson said, “It was decided that William as heir to the heir, the risk is too great. But for his younger brother, the risk was acceptable.”
Jackson made the comments in a new ITV documentary entitled The Real Crown, according to reports in British media including the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.
“What goes on in those audiences and who says what to whom remains for the two people involved, and I will break the rule about not divulging what goes on on this one occasion,” Jackson is quoted saying in the documentary.
Jackson said: “William was very keen to go. Unequivocally. But it was complex, and some very great minds and experienced people took a view on it.”
Harry undertook two tours of Afghanistan. William put his military training to use flying rescue helicopters.
In Spare, Harry said he killed 25 Taliban fighters, and that he was dehumanized by his training to see them as “chess pieces removed from the board.”
