'REALLY MODEST'
Inside life of most down-to-earth royal Lady Louise from NHS birth to working in canteen – and why she snubbed HRH title
While waiting for her A-level results in 2022, she took a £6.83-an-hour job in a local garden centre
THIS weekend Prince Edward and his family are expected to be shooting at Windsor.
The outing is a 60th birthday present from the King to Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh.
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But the person most likely to enjoy the treat is Sophie’s daughter, Lady Louise Windsor who is a crack shot with a gun.
The Sun revealed yesterday that student Lady Louise, 21, hopes to join the military when she leaves St Andrews University.
If Louise does become an Army officer, she will be the first female royal to serve in the Armed Forces since the late Queen, who was a Junior Commander with the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945.
Down-to-earth Louise is already a keen member of the University Officer Training Corps and is said to get on well with the other cadets.
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And the girl who refused to use her title, HRH Princess Louise, when she turned 18 is so determined to be normal that, according to insiders, she works in the campus canteen.
The young royal is certainly not afraid to get her hands dirty.
While waiting for her A-level results in 2022, she took a £6.83- an-hour job in a local garden centre.
Louise did not baulk at grafting at the centre near her home, watering and potting plants, carrying sacks and serving customers.
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One visitor said: “The staff seemed to adore her. She is a really modest and sweet young woman, who is polite and attentive.
“She seemed to be loving the job. You’d never imagine the Queen’s granddaughter would take on a role working behind a till.”
Charles' niece wants to become first female royal since Queen to serve in the Armed Forces
Favourite grandchild
The reason is that her mother, Sophie, who was a commoner before marrying Prince Edward, expected Louise and her brother James, 17, to have jobs like the rest of us.
The Duchess once said: “We try to bring them up with the understanding they are very likely to have to work for a living.
The staff seemed to adore her. She is a really modest and sweet young woman, who is polite and attentive
Visitor to garden centre where Louise worked
“Hence we made the decision not to use the HRH titles. They have them and can decide to use them from 18, but I think it’s highly unlikely.”
As a result, Louise is the most ordinary royal of them all — despite being the favourite grandchild of Prince Philip and the Queen.
In fact, as a little girl she once returned home from St George’s School in Windsor and told Sophie: “People keep telling me that Granny is the Queen.”
But the life of Lady Louise Mountbatten- Windsor has been normal ever since the day she was born — the first royal ever to come into the world in an NHS hospital.
Prince Edward was away on a royal tour of Mauritius when Sophie went into labour four weeks early, in November 2003.
Age 38, she was due to have her first child at the private Portland Hospital in London. But Sophie, who had been airlifted to hospital with an ectopic pregnancy two years earlier, collapsed with severe stomach pains at Bagshot Park, the couple’s £30million home in Surrey.
She was taken by ambulance to Frimley Park Hospital, Camberley, under armed guard, where her daughter was delivered in a three-hour emergency Caesarean section.
The countess lost nine pints of blood during the operation, putting both mother and baby’s lives in danger.
Louise, who weighed just 4lb 9oz, was immediately transferred to a specialist baby unit 35 miles away at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London. It would be a week before mum and baby were reunited.
Sophie would later admit the “very scary” birth was so stressful that, for ten years after Louise was born, she found it hard to go inside neonatal wards on royal visits.
Louise was also born with esotropia, a condition that causes one or both eyes to deviate, and as a child she had multiple surgeries to correct her vision.
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When Edward and his wife named their daughter Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Philip was delighted that after 55 years, a member of the Royal Family finally shared his adopted surname.
Because Lady Louise lived close to the Queen and Philip at Windsor Castle, she became the grandchild they saw most and doted on.
And when she took up horse riding and later carriage driving, Prince Philip was even more enchanted.
Sophie said: “My father-in-law was really encouraging of Lady Louise.
“So, when she not only said, ‘Please can I have a go’ but then showed a flair for it, he was brilliant with her.
“They used to chat away. If she was competing in the Great Park, he would always turn up to watch her.”
When Philip died in April 2021, he bequeathed his green four-wheel carriage and two favourite fell ponies to Lady Louise, who still competes with them when she can.
Only last month she came first at an indoor horse-driving trials. Louise also competes at Windsor and Sandringham during her breaks from university.
The local Windsor carriage driving club feared that when Prince Philip died they would be banned for using the Great Park.
Royal duties
But a member of Great Park Equestrian Group says: “Because Lady Louise and her mum Sophie love carriage driving and Prince Edward is now in charge of the Great Park, we can enjoy our sport.
“We’re delighted Louise has taken to carriage driving just like her grandad — and the results prove she is very good at it. But she has no airs and graces about her at all.”
At the Sandringham Horse Driving Trials last July, Louise was spotted with her boyfriend, solicitor’s son Felix da Silva-Clamp, on the back of her carriage.
Though she prefers a normal life at the moment, she has the option of becoming a princess if she wants to. The King should consider her
Phil Dampier, Royal author
They met at St Andrews, just like the young Prince William and Princess Kate.
While William fell for Kate as she sashayed down the catwalk at a university fashion show, Felix, 20, met Louise in a student stage play.
An insider says: “Louise wanted to study English at Cambridge, but wasn’t accepted, which annoyed her father who had gone there as a student. St Andrews was her second choice, but I’m sure she’s having a much better time there.”
Lady Louise and Felix appeared in Dragon Fever, staged at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews.
It tells the story of nine strangers on a mission to slay a dragon, which turns into a murder mystery “full of riddles, twists, and love affairs”.
Pictures from a fundraiser for the university drama society show Louise partying with friends, showing off her moves on the dancefloor and snapping selfies.
With Louise in a V-neck black dress, the pair wrapped their arms around each other and, in another image, she snuggles up to Felix, placing her hand on his chest and her head on his shoulder.
An insider says: “Felix, who works at an ice cream parlour in St Andrews, has met Louise’s parents and they seem to like him.”
Students in Scotland study for four years, instead of three.
When university resumes next Monday, Louise will still have nearly 18 months left of her English Literature course.
Even if she does not join the Army after her degree, experts believe that Lady Louise would be a brilliant asset to the Royal Family.
Royal author Phil Dampier says: “She doesn’t obviously want to do that at the moment, but with the slimmed down monarchy that we’ve now got by default, she could have an important role in the future.
We have a gap of ten years before George, Charlotte and Louis will be old enough to start performing any royal duties.
“Lady Louise could have a royal career if she was asked.
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“Though she prefers a normal life at the moment, she has the option of becoming a princess if she wants to. The King should consider her.”
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FROM SHY TO POISED
By Arthur Edwards, Royal photographer
LADY Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor was already 15 days old when I first got to take her photo.
Because of the drama of her premature birth it was November 23, 2003, before proud Prince Edward and his wife Sophie Wessex were able to pose outside Frimley Park Hospital with their first-born.
And they can be rightly proud of Lady Louise.
I have watched her grow from a shy young girl into a beautiful woman, who is confident among the crowds who turn out at Sandringham each Christmas.
Louise has come a long way since I photographed the young royal when Queen Elizabeth visited her Windsor primary school.
On that occasion, little Louise hid herself at the back of the class.
I only knew she was there when the Queen spotted her and gave her granddaughter a discreet wave.
I’m sure Prince Philip and the late Queen would have been proud that Louise wants to serve King and country in the Army.
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