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Why Prince Harry and posh people are obsessed with conquering things Why Prince Harry and posh people are obsessed with conquering things
(5 months later)
Taller in real life, no less ginger: that is the immediate news about Prince Harry, if you must know. We were gathered in the ballroom of the Hyde Park Mandarin Oriental, a faceless hotel with carpets up the walls, where nobody normal would ever stay. The event is to launch the South Pole Allied Challenge 2013, in which wounded soldiers from the UK, America, Canada and Australia compete – they're not allowed to call it a race, for reasons that are probably stupid and I refuse to indulge – to see who can reach the bottom of the world first.Taller in real life, no less ginger: that is the immediate news about Prince Harry, if you must know. We were gathered in the ballroom of the Hyde Park Mandarin Oriental, a faceless hotel with carpets up the walls, where nobody normal would ever stay. The event is to launch the South Pole Allied Challenge 2013, in which wounded soldiers from the UK, America, Canada and Australia compete – they're not allowed to call it a race, for reasons that are probably stupid and I refuse to indulge – to see who can reach the bottom of the world first.
"It's about courage, to be sure, physical strength, endurance, comradeship…" said the prince, effortlessly holding a room and not, I don't think, with sheer royalness. He gives good patriotic passion, and is always ready with a laugh. "But there's something else, something deeper … A toughness of mind. An unquench-ion-able [this word was a cross between unquestionable and unmentionable] mind that leads someone to say 'I will not be beaten'." It is a rum old game, martial self-fashioning. They must do this at Sandhurst, a course on how irony and realism are for pussies, and nobody ever built an empire saying, "but the South Pole is incredibly cold and inhospitable"."It's about courage, to be sure, physical strength, endurance, comradeship…" said the prince, effortlessly holding a room and not, I don't think, with sheer royalness. He gives good patriotic passion, and is always ready with a laugh. "But there's something else, something deeper … A toughness of mind. An unquench-ion-able [this word was a cross between unquestionable and unmentionable] mind that leads someone to say 'I will not be beaten'." It is a rum old game, martial self-fashioning. They must do this at Sandhurst, a course on how irony and realism are for pussies, and nobody ever built an empire saying, "but the South Pole is incredibly cold and inhospitable".
"Teams of our wounded will manhaul sledges on skis", explained Ed Parker, co-founder of Walking with the Wounded. It's "to show the world the extraordinary courage and determination of the men and women who have been wounded while serving our countries and to remind us all of the help and support we owe them"."Teams of our wounded will manhaul sledges on skis", explained Ed Parker, co-founder of Walking with the Wounded. It's "to show the world the extraordinary courage and determination of the men and women who have been wounded while serving our countries and to remind us all of the help and support we owe them".
I get all that. It is good to be reminded of the hardship they endure on our (sort of) behalf, even if putting them through another, fresh hardship is a curious way to go about it. I am not one of those people who think that, because you disagree with a war, you don't care that people lose their limbs fighting it.I get all that. It is good to be reminded of the hardship they endure on our (sort of) behalf, even if putting them through another, fresh hardship is a curious way to go about it. I am not one of those people who think that, because you disagree with a war, you don't care that people lose their limbs fighting it.
I accept, even while I admit I do not fully understand, that posh people are obsessed with the Earth's poles. That's why Eton's school trips are to the Arctic rather than (or maybe as well as) to Chamonix. That's why expeditions, throughout history, which looked like suicide missions inspire such great, such craven respect from the aristocratic class, while the rest of us think, yes, it was brave, but – like sticking your hand in a toaster – if you'd thought about it beforehand, you would have seen that it was a foolish idea.I accept, even while I admit I do not fully understand, that posh people are obsessed with the Earth's poles. That's why Eton's school trips are to the Arctic rather than (or maybe as well as) to Chamonix. That's why expeditions, throughout history, which looked like suicide missions inspire such great, such craven respect from the aristocratic class, while the rest of us think, yes, it was brave, but – like sticking your hand in a toaster – if you'd thought about it beforehand, you would have seen that it was a foolish idea.
What I don't understand is the link between the language of challenge – or, to give it its full title, as Major Kate Philp did, "guts, determination, teamwork, physical and mental courage" – and the exquisite, almost courtly love of authority that seems to accompany it.What I don't understand is the link between the language of challenge – or, to give it its full title, as Major Kate Philp did, "guts, determination, teamwork, physical and mental courage" – and the exquisite, almost courtly love of authority that seems to accompany it.
"Sir," Parker said to Harry, only by a mighty effort of will (plus guts, determination, etc) leaving an "e" off the end, "your support and commitment is what really makes a difference. I know you, like these men and women, are a soldier." It is as if courage itself, rather than being a necessary asset in the toolkit of war, is war's main purpose; as if the entire point of raising an army, sticking a prince at the top of it, and advancing into a dangerous world, were just to make the point that you have an unquenchable mind that will not be beaten. It's a bit like reading Beowulf – why does he have to do all this nutty fighting? Why does he always have to be the guy at the front, who wins? For posterity, stupid. Beowulf, of course, had the get-out of living in the eighth century, and also being fictional. Fourteen centuries later, it sort of surprises me that there are still people, even people who have had rather sheltered lives, with the same warrior mythmaking, who haven't realised that posterity has its own battles to worry about."Sir," Parker said to Harry, only by a mighty effort of will (plus guts, determination, etc) leaving an "e" off the end, "your support and commitment is what really makes a difference. I know you, like these men and women, are a soldier." It is as if courage itself, rather than being a necessary asset in the toolkit of war, is war's main purpose; as if the entire point of raising an army, sticking a prince at the top of it, and advancing into a dangerous world, were just to make the point that you have an unquenchable mind that will not be beaten. It's a bit like reading Beowulf – why does he have to do all this nutty fighting? Why does he always have to be the guy at the front, who wins? For posterity, stupid. Beowulf, of course, had the get-out of living in the eighth century, and also being fictional. Fourteen centuries later, it sort of surprises me that there are still people, even people who have had rather sheltered lives, with the same warrior mythmaking, who haven't realised that posterity has its own battles to worry about.
Outside the hotel beforehand, three American students, Claire Deneen, Alison Pohle, and Jessica Puckett, all 21, were waiting for a glimpse of the prince. They looked faintly familiar, and I realised that I've bloody interviewed them before, when Kate Middleton went to visit Hope House. They were the only people who looked remotely sane in that street crowd, and they were the only people outside the hotel, apart from a children's author from Singapore who claimed that, when he put his books in people's hands, they instantly fell pregnant (it worked on Kate. And it also worked on Celine Dion).Outside the hotel beforehand, three American students, Claire Deneen, Alison Pohle, and Jessica Puckett, all 21, were waiting for a glimpse of the prince. They looked faintly familiar, and I realised that I've bloody interviewed them before, when Kate Middleton went to visit Hope House. They were the only people who looked remotely sane in that street crowd, and they were the only people outside the hotel, apart from a children's author from Singapore who claimed that, when he put his books in people's hands, they instantly fell pregnant (it worked on Kate. And it also worked on Celine Dion).
It struck me for a moment that this was all that was keeping the royal mystique alive, these three, very well-organised American students. But that was before I saw the royal mystique in action. Prince Harry doesn't need students. Nobody who goes to the South Pole needs a crowd outside to ask for their autograph. They have toughness of mind; it doesn't mean much to those of us without it, but it means a lot to them.It struck me for a moment that this was all that was keeping the royal mystique alive, these three, very well-organised American students. But that was before I saw the royal mystique in action. Prince Harry doesn't need students. Nobody who goes to the South Pole needs a crowd outside to ask for their autograph. They have toughness of mind; it doesn't mean much to those of us without it, but it means a lot to them.
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