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Telegraph
a day ago
- General
- Telegraph
Prince of Wales brings home the bacon as Colonel-in-Chief
The Prince of Wales travelled in style as he made his first visit as Colonel-in-Chief to the Army Air Corps. He arrived at the base in Wattisham, Suffolk in a Wildcat helicopter, a reconnaissance aircraft in the AAC's fleet. The Prince wasted no time in getting stuck into learning about life at the flying station, serving up bacon and sausage baps for breakfast, which he admitted made his 'mouth water'. He was told about the 664 Squadron's operational lessons from overseas tours and how soldiers were adapting to the new capabilities of the recently acquired Apache AH-64E. The Prince watched a tough combat physical training session before meeting groups of soldiers and their families including Mike and Lorna Pope, the parents of Air Trooper Daniel Pope of 664 Sqn who died of cancer in 2016. The squadron and regiment honour his memory with an annual cross country race and named the on-site Pope's Bar after him. Before piloting a Wildcat helicopter home, he presented the King's Commendation for Valuable Service and Promotions from Corporal to Sergeant. The Prince became the AAC's Colonel-in-Chief in May 2024 when the King officially handed over the role to his elder son at the Army Aviation Centre in Middle Wallop. The Prince completed an intensive four-month flying course at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire in April 2008, receiving his wings from his father. He went on to complete a one-year advanced helicopter training course at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, before training as a search and rescue helicopter pilot at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales. He qualified in September 2010 and immediately began operational service as the co-pilot of a Sea King Mk3 helicopter, working as part of a four-person crew. His active service ended three years later, having conducted 156 search and rescue operations and helped rescue 149 people.
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Prince William series to champion ‘dangerous' work of wildlife rangers
Wildlife rangers perform 'one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet', the Prince of Wales has said at the launch of a docuseries highlighting these 'unseen, unheard and undervalued' heroes of the natural world. William, who presents Guardians, a six-part series launching on Friday, said championing the protectors of the natural world was particularly special as he had met many of them on his travels. They often told him how much more dangerous the job had become as a result of civil wars, illegal fishing or poaching, he said. 'At some point, we do have to say 'enough is enough' and highlight the bravery of these men and women on a daily basis.' The series, which was William's idea, was launched by the Royal Foundation's United for Wildlife, and through immersive field footage focuses on six areas – Central African Republic, the Himalayas, Mexico's Sea of Cortez, Kruger national park in South Africa, as well as Sri Lanka and Caru Indigenous Land in Brazil. Each six- to 10-minute episode highlights a different story, with the first featuring Modiki Claver, who now protects the wildlife he once poached in Dzanga-Sangha, Central African Republic. New episodes will launch each Friday on BBC Earth's YouTube and social media channels. About 1,400 rangers had died as a result of their job over the past 10 years, William said, but so many cases were forgotten and unreported. William said: 'Every day, they take huge risks as nature's frontline of defence, standing between poachers and endangered species, supporting sustainable human-animal coexistence and fighting habitat loss.' The prince said the role of rangers was not just about carrying guns in the bush, which people often heard about. Those working in the Himalayas, for example, were at risk from the dangerous terrain. Globally, rangers' work encompassed community initiatives, education, teaching and scientific research. He said a further 1.5 million rangers were needed to meet global environmental biodiversity targets by 2030 – but this was a challenge. 'Because why would anyone get involved when it's not properly funded, they are not valued, no one cares?' the prince said at a launch panel discussion chaired by the wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion 'It's got to change. I'm hoping [this series] shines a really big spotlight on the determination, the resilience, the enthusiasm that people have to look after the natural world.' Last year, United for Wildlife committed to a five-year financial package providing 10,000 African rangers with affordable insurance cover. William said rangers were 'the glue' between humans and the natural world. 'Any future we want for the natural world has to come from the ranger community being valued and especially seen.'
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Kate officially names new Royal Navy warship HMS Glasgow
The Princess of Wales has officially named the Royal Navy's newest warship HMS Glasgow in a ceremony on the River is the first of eight Type 26 frigates to be built by BAE Systems at its Glasgow shipbuilding facilities in Govan and accompanied by the Prince of Wales, smashed a bottle of whisky against the hull in the traditional naming Glasgow was laid down at BAE's Govan yard in 2017 and launched at the end of 2022, when she was floated off a special barge into the Clyde. Blessing the ship as its official sponsor, Kate said: "I name this ship Glasgow. May God bless her and all who serve in her."The event included a flypast from an RAF Poseidon aircraft from HMS Glasgow's affiliated CXX Squadron. It is the second time in a month that the Duke and Duchess of Rothsay, as William and Kate are known in Scotland, have been north of the celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary on the Isle of Mull in Systems managing director Simon Lister said the ceremony was a "historic moment for the Type 26 programme, the city of Glasgow and the thousands of people involved". He added: "The naming of HMS Glasgow is a significant step towards this cutting-edge vessel joining the Royal Navy fleet and demonstrates our solid progress in delivering these powerful new ships."While some aspects of a traditional naming ceremony were upheld, BAE Systems abandoned traditional "dynamic" slipway launches on the Clyde 14 years military firm now favours the "float off" method, which is more controlled and allows a vessel to be launched in a more complete state. The 150m (492ft)-long ship, which will have a crew of 161, is the ninth Royal Navy warship to be named after Royal Navy's Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral, Sir Martin Connell, said the ship was "a pure-bred Anti-Submarine Warfare platform, setting the standard for naval warfare".All eight of the Type 26 vessels are named after a UK's city – Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cardiff launched in August 2024 and work has started on the next ships, HMS Belfast, HMS Birmingham and HMS frigates are expected to enter service between 2028 and the mid-2030s. Their role will include protecting the aircraft carriers and Trident submarines.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Kate's favoured designer Jade Holland Cooper admits she 'never knows when the royal is going to wear her brand' - and says first time was a 'truly a career highlight'
The Princess of Wales knows that a stylish, tailored blazer can bring an outfit together in an instant - and recently, she delivered a masterclass in styling a tweed jacket from one of her favourite designers, Jade Holland Cooper. During Kate, 42, and the Prince of Wales' recent royal visit to Scotland to mark their 14th wedding anniversary, the royal donned a double-breasted brown herringbone blazer by the quintessential British brand. Holland Cooper is known for its sharp tailoring and the piece worn by Kate is no exception, with it featuring a longline style cut close to the body with hip pockets, a luxury satin line, and signature gold Holland Cooper hardware that complimented the brown herringbone fabric. The Princess gave the blazer a more casual look by wearing it over a light blue button-shirt with the cuffs exposed and dark skinny jeans, complete with a pair of rustic chic brown leather boots. Kate is a longtime fan of Holland Cooper, having worn the brand in numerous royal engagements over the years. But despite the royal's clear appreciation for the designer's clothing of the past several years, Jade Holland Cooper has admitted that even now, she still 'never knows when Kate is going to wear the brand'. Speaking to FEMAIL about the future Queen wearing her creations, the British fashion designer, who is married to the co-founder of clothing label Superdry, Julian Dunkerton, said: 'It was such a special moment for me, even better that she is a genuine fan of the brand. 'She is the epitome of classic style, just the perfect endorsement and ambassador for all brand Holland Cooper stands for.' Discussing whether she's ever warned ahead of time that Kate will be making an appearance in one of her designs, Jade revealed: 'No, we never know when she is going to wear it. 'The first time, I was actually on a photoshoot in the middle of a field on a shoot we were doing to launch our dog accessories range. I checked my phone and had so many missed calls from the team, it was a truly a career highlight for me.' In 2023, Kate wore a white bodysuit by Holland Cooper under her tailored burgundy suit by Roland Mouret at a reception that took place ahead of her inaugural Shaping Us National Symposium. That same year, she wore a sleek pair of white trousers by the designer, paired with a bespoke coat by Savile Row tailor Chris Kerr at her Together at Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey. Other times she has worn the British brand include the £179 Fairisle knit jumper she wore to present a 2022 CBeebies bedtime story - which sold out after she appeared on TV with it - and the Knightsbridge Coat to the Six Nations that same year. Jade, whose father was a farmer and mother was a fashion designer, founded Holland Cooper in 2008 at Badminton Horse Trials. Fifteen years later, the company is predicted a £40million annual turnover. Later that same year, at her Together at Christmas carol service, she wore an elegant ivory coat by Savile Row tailor Chris Kerr over a pair of sleek high-waisted ivory trousers by Holland Cooper 'I noticed a gap in the market for stylish and flattering country clothes,' explained the businesswoman. 'All the tweeds were ill-fitting, I wanted to create garments that were not only fit for purpose, but looked amazing and empowered the women who wore them. 'I had a tiny stand at Badminton Horse Trials, selling tweed miniskirts – we soon sold out. I appreciated the demand and abandoned my studies at the Royal Agricultural College in order to start a business; Holland Cooper was born.' The designer says she has always been entrepreneurial, having even started her own egg selling business as a child, where she would trade the eggs from her chickens locally. 'I watched both my parents start businesses and work hard and this made me want to do the same, with the drive to succeed,' said Jade. The fashion designer said seeing racegoers at Cheltenham Festival wearing her attire 'is one of the highlights of the year for me.' 'Our tailoring is timeless, and its lovely to see the same pieces from 15 years ago being styled with new pieces to create the perfect racing looks,' she explained. Sharing her tips for race day dressing, she said: 'Layering is key to making sure you look great but also enjoy the day,' adding: 'It is always freezing!' The Princess made quite a statement at the 2022 Six Nations match between England and Wales, where she wore the black-and-white houndstooth Knightsbridge Coat by the brand Kate has stepped out in Jade Holland Cooper's eponymous clothing range a number of times - including in 2022 when the £179 Fairisle knit sweater the royal wore to present a CBeebies bedtime story (pictured) sold out She continued: 'I think people assume racing means green tweeds, although these are a classic, I like to try bright bolder looks.' Meanwhile, she warned: 'The ground is often muddy, and you are on your feet most of the day, so a flat boot or chunky heel is necessary.' Discussing the perfect accessories, she added: 'It is a busy day and a cross body bag is a must. I always tell my customers that leather gloves are a must; a silk scarf can really elevate your look and one of our trilby hats.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
How the residents of the King's dream of a picture-perfect, car-free eco village are happy in their glorious isolation … even if it will never be finished!
Looking down from on high, the drone's eye view is unflinchingly spare. Far below is a tiny enclave of brightly painted homes, their perfectly aligned slate roofs glinting in the hot spring sunshine as they cling together against the vast expanse of notably undeveloped scrubland beyond. Each house is chocolate box pretty, the palette of styles moves from Georgian townhouse to crofters' cottages, making the whole tricky to date. Down at street level, by a road connecting two former mining communities in Ayrshire, the task is made easier by a foundation stone unveiled in May 2011 by the then Prince of Wales. This, then, is Knockroon – Charles's fabled vision of an 'eco-village' filled with sustainable homes built from stone using traditional arts and crafts. Had things gone to plan, the drone might have captured a very different picture with the surrounding 70-acre tract of boggy farmland filled with a thrumming, largely car-free community of shops and small businesses, all within a five-minute walk of everyone's front door. Furthermore, the 770-home development would provide a chance for local apprentices to learn traditional trades and building skills which, hopefully, would result in an elegant estate of more classically designed homes and fewer soulless, carbon copies like those found on many modern estates. The first phase of 250 royally approved houses on the edge of the former mining town of Cumnock should have been completed by 2017, with the remainder following within 15 years. The whole project was intended to dovetail with Charles's acquisition of the 2,000-acre Dumfries House estate, which he hoped would become a motor of regeneration for the entire community. The sale of houses at Knockroon was meant to help pay back loans used to buy the estate and, as the first homes went up, the first residents would recall fleeting sightings of the heir to the throne buzzing about checking on progress. Since the initial flurry of construction, however, Charles's dream village has stalled. Just 31 homes have been built and not a brick has been laid in ten years. And while the landscape around this model village has barely changed in the past decade, a sprawling 156-home development of modern bungalows and villas, which do not conform to Charles's traditional ideas on architectural design, has been thrown up in the fields directly opposite, dwarfing what exists of eco-friendly Knockroon. Its green credentials were squeezed further by a new £64million 'super-school' for 2,500 pupils at the foot of the hill. The quiet streets around Knockroon have become a magnet for parents waiting with car engines running to pick up their children at the end of the school day. There was controversy when the charity watchdog confirmed that it was investigating a property company over the purchase of 11 of the homes. A Sunday Times investigation published claims that Charles ennobled the businessman and owner of Havisham Properties after accepting millions of pounds in donations from him. So much time has passed without progress that even Charles has moved on to a new job. The King must fear his Midas touch has forever deserted him at Knockroon. And given the catalogue of setbacks which have befallen the place, one might expect its residents to have become embittered. After all, what has transpired is scarcely the vision they bought into. While it undoubtedly takes less than five minutes to cover every street in a settlement so small the name doesn't come up on Google Maps, the only facilities are a café and a dental surgery. Remarkably, though, from the rubble of broken dreams, a deep-rooted sense of community has blossomed. 'It's unfortunate the way things have worked out but, selfishly, I'm quite happy here in glorious isolation. It's so nice and quiet,' said Pat Harris, 65, a retired physiotherapist. She has lived in her terracotta-coloured three-bedroom home in Darsie Brae, Knockroon, for the past ten-and-a-half years. 'It's small but there's a really nice community here. We have a book group and folk will organise things and text and see if others want to come along. 'And for the Queen's jubilee we organised a street party and we had a party at my house for the King's coronation and the neighbours came along for that. 'I was never a monarchist but when I look at the work and the impact that the King has had in the local area, it's incredible.' Liz Conquer, who lives on the other side of the estate on Auchinleck Road with her retired police officer husband, David, admitted there were frustrations: 'There is no hub in the community and no green space. I wouldn't bring up a family here, but we were looking to downsize and it's perfect for us. We absolutely adore the place, and the people who own their homes rather than rent, we go to concerts, we have a WhatsApp group. And we have created our own community, those of us who are invested in it. 'It is just a stunning place to live. It would be nice if it was finished. It doesn't bother us that it's not, but it would be nice if it was.' For Mrs Harris, community also means family, as her 88-year-old mother, Pat Wallace, lives on the estate too, as does her daughter, Rebecca, and granddaughter Penelope. Mrs Wallace was the second to move there in 2011 and she showed Charles around the kitchen in her flat. Her daughter said: 'There are now four generations of us here, which is lovely. It lets me keep an eye on my mum. My other daughter lives in Auchinleck, so her three children come here for breakfast and then we walk down to school from here, which is really nice.' Stone pots filled with flowers brighten the pavement outside her front door and a stone wall shelters her back garden. On the other side of the wall, a plot where the final houses in phase one were meant to go stands vacant. 'A lot of the promised facilities haven't appeared, probably because of the size of the place,' she said. 'There are supposed to be houses going into the area next to me but we'll have to see.' She sounded unfazed by the lack of progress. 'I just don't know that anything will happen. It was a great idea at the time, but the house prices were incredible for the really high spec,' she said. 'We have deep skirting boards, there are no visible cables or pipes, we have sash-and-case windows. I just don't think any building company could sustain just how well built the houses were.' Retired couple Liz and Andy Doole bought their three-bedroom, three-bathroom Georgian-style townhouse off plan after moving from Spain because, as Mrs Doole, now 75, put it: 'I was homesick and I was bored. We popped into the show home and realised they were being built to a far higher standard than anything else we saw.' She and her husband, now 79, moved in while the builders were still constructing homes around them. 'The gardens were basically still rubble then, but we loved the house,' she said. 'And we have the nicest neighbours.' A sense of pride pervades the place. The streets are spotless and each garden is an oasis of calm. 'We all do litter picking to keep the streets tidy. It wouldn't look like this if we didn't. And we got the vacant lot fenced off to prevent dog mess,' said Mrs Conquer. University lecturer Yiorgos Vazakas, who lives on Jimmy Boyd Way with wife, Diane, and his son, Markos, said they bought their house five minutes after viewing it: 'We haven't regretted it, even though we had some problems in the beginning with the quality of the build. But it's quiet and scenic and we couldn't have asked for anything more really.' They all concede that Knockroon's modest size means the dream of a car-free community remains just that. 'There are buses on the doorstep to Ayr and Kilmarnock and a train station at Auchinleck within walking distance, but we have a Blue Badge for my mum as she's limited in how far she can walk,' said Mrs Harris. 'I know it's been compared to Poundbury, but I think you definitely need a car.' Ah yes, Poundbury, the King's other eco pilot in Dorset. Now extending to more than 1,000 homes, it was constructed on Duchy of Cornwall land on the edge of well-heeled Dorchester and it has proved a success. More than 30 years after building work began, there are 4,100 residents, 180 businesses and 2,000 people working in Poundbury-based jobs, while the few properties for sale rarely hang around for long. Charles saw an opportunity to repeat the trick when he led a consortium to buy Dumfries House for the nation in 2007, hours before its antique furniture and artworks were due to go under the hammer at Christie's in London. The late Marquess of Bute – former racing driver Johnny Dumfries – was seeking £45million for the mansion and its contents and, until Charles intervened, a campaign to put the property in public ownership had raised nothing like that. He borrowed the £20million shortfall from his Charitable Foundation, now based at Dumfries House, and the plan was to repay the loan by creating a Scottish Poundbury. But by 2014, the cost of buying a three-bedroom house in the former mining towns of Ayrshire was cheaper than anywhere else in the UK at just £72,500 and many were failing to sell. The asking price for Knockroon homes, by contrast, was £250,000 – later reduced to £190,000. Buyers also had to sign a contract ensuring they stuck to Charles's vision, banning them from putting up satellite dishes or repainting the colour of their home. With few sales by 2014, Dumfries House bought back some of the houses to use as staff accommodation. Eleven more were purchased as buy-to-lets by the Havisham Group, which is owned by David Brownlow, a millionaire pal of Charles. He also owns the Knockroon café Da Vinci's, the village's sole focal point. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator investigated Havisham over the deal after the Sunday Times published claims that Charles ennobled Lord Brownlow after accepting millions of pounds in donations from him. The matter led to Michael Fawcett resigning as chief executive of the King's Foundation. In January, the OSCR identified 'serious' failures in management of the charity, although the foundation said at the time the watchdog was 'satisfied with the improvements made by the King's Foundation in recent years'. Mrs Harris said house prices on the neighbouring estate have now caught up with where Knockroon was: 'They're very expensive actually – £300,000 to £400,000 for a three-bedroom home.' Having paused the project for review in 2019, the King's Foundation said last week it hoped to build up to 400 homes on the site with construction under way in the next three to four years. Executive director Gordon Neil said while the same build ethos and design code would remain, using local contractors and suppliers 'where possible', future development 'will benefit from increased outdoor space, which is a reflection of how the housing market has changed in the past 17 years'. In the strangest of ironies, thoughts of expansion may now face resistance from some current residents. 'People would get upset because there were meant to be so many more buildings around,' said Mr Vazakas. 'But I think, 'Why the hell do you want more people here? So you can have more trouble?' I am happy with this, how it is.'
