To mark the first anniversary of his coronation, King Charles accepted patronage at Gordonstoun, the Scottish institution where he attended high school – and which he reportedly called “absolute hell”.
King, 75, who attended Gordonstoun from 1962 to 1967, has become patron of the Gordonstoun Association, marking his first official link with the school, reports the BBC. The role was previously held by the monarch’s late father, Prince Philip, who was also an alumnus of the institution.
Along with the late Duke of Edinburgh, Charles joins another cousin, Princess Anne, as an official supporter of the institution, the BBC reports. Anne has the role of a manager in a boarding school.
Gordonstoun School.
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Gordonstone’s website states that the school is “extremely proud to be the first college to educate a king, and even prouder to note how King Charles’s years here nurtured his love and commitment to service, the outdoors and the arts.”
But King’s time at the school is thought to have been an unhappy one, at least at the beginning – a period that was shown in the second season Crown.
In the Netflix series, King Charles is sent to Gordonstoun at his father’s insistence, while both his mother, Queen Elizabeth, and his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, preferred him to attend Eton College.
While Gordonstoun is located in Moray, Scotland, Eton is only a short distance from Windsor Castle. The king’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, also attended there.
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The late Queen Elizabeth with King Charles at Gordonstoun in 1967 Keystone-FranceGamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Prince Philip was determined that his son would follow in his footsteps, attend his alma mater and have the same life-changing experience he had at the institution – and in the end he succeeded.
IN Crown, King Charles arrives at the school, an all-boys institution at the time, and immediately becomes miserable. He was bullied, found the physical aspect of his education trying, and struggled with certain aspects of life at Gordonstoun (such as the windows not closing in the rain), especially compared to his life at home.
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Rumor has it that the royal family even nicknamed the school “Colditz in Kilts” and allegedly called it “absolute hell” – quote Crown included in the depiction of his high school days.
Prince Philip also had challenges during his first days at Gordonstoun, which was a new school when he attended, but he grew to love it over time. As historian Robert Lacey put it: “For Philip this is a wonderful, pioneering moment, and in many ways it was his development.”
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The late Prince Philip in a school play at Gordonstoun. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Prince William attends soccer championship with Prince George after canceling royal duties
“Philip is portrayed as cruel for sending him to school, but Philip did it [for] the best of motifs,” Lacey previously told PEOPLE. “It was a fantastic, developmental phase in his life, after his broken past. He thought it would be the making of Charles, but the school changed. When Philip was there, the hardships, the challenges of the climate and the countryside encouraged him.”
“By the time Charles was there,” he added, “the school had become a much more conventional private school. It’s a moving, powerful story.”
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King Charles also spoke fondly of his time at Gordonstoun, even talking Observer magazine that the idea that he hated school was “exaggerated” in 1974 – almost a decade after he left the institution.
Similarly, in a speech in the House of Lords in 1975, he said: “I am always amazed at the amount of rot that is said about Gordonstoun and the careless use of ancient clichés that are used to describe it.”
“It was tough just in the sense that it demanded more of you as an individual than most other schools — mentally or physically,” he continued at the time. “I’m lucky because I believe I’ve learned a lot about myself and my strengths and weaknesses. It taught me to accept challenges and take initiative. Why else do you think I am brave enough to stand before your lordships now?”
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Source: HIS Education