Seventy photos for 70 years to celebrate Prince of Wales’s birthday
The archive of images charts Charles’s life through the decades.
Seventy photos to mark 70 years of the Prince of Wales’s life have been compiled to celebrate the heir to the throne’s milestone birthday.
With an image of Charles from every single year of his life so far, the pictures, brought together by the Press Association, show the prince through the decades – from newborn baby and toddler to university student and naval officer, and then husband, father and globe-trotting king-in-waiting.
Charles, the nation’s longest-serving heir to the throne, turns 70 on November 14.
In the first photo from 1948, one-month-old Charles is pictured sleeping soundly in the arms of his mother, Princess Elizabeth, at his christening in Buckingham Palace.
As a chubby-cheeked toddler, he is shown on his third birthday in 1951 chatting with his grandfather, George VI, as they sit on an ornate sofa in the palace.
In 1958, the nine-year-old prince strides off to Cheam School in Berkshire in his smart blazer, shirt and tie, shorts, long socks and cap.
The picture was taken the day after the Queen gave her eldest son the title the Prince of Wales.
In 1965, teenage thespian Charles, with dagger in hand and wearing a fake beard, is on stage as Macbeth at his Scottish boarding school, Gordonstoun.
In the 1970s, the prince entered a new phase in his life – joining the armed forces, and earning himself a reputation as an Action Man for being a sailor, airman, marine, parachutist, diver, surfer, polo player and a jockey.
The 1980s brought a fairytale wedding to Lady Diana Spencer and the arrival of their two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
By the 1990s, the problems in the Waleses marriage were plain to see, with the couple famously appearing strained in each other’s company on an official tour to South Korea.
The prince and princess split, finally divorcing in 1996 – a year before Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris.
Family portraits in the collection include Charles with William, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen, pictured together in 2003 to mark the 50th anniversary of the monarch’s coronation.
Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, his former mistress whom he married in 2005, are pictured together in 2008, roaring with laughter while at the Mey Highland Games in Caithness.
Other photos range from Charles with the Spice Girls in 1997 to the prince tobogganing with William and Harry in 1995, and wearing a Rasta tam hat complete with dreadlocks in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2000.
In addition to the 70 pictures from 1948 to 2017, Charles is pictured in 2018 – the year of his 70th birthday – as he accompanies Meghan Markle, now his daughter-in-law and the Duchess of Sussex, down the Quire to the altar in St George’s Chapel where she married his youngest son, Harry, now the Duke of Sussex.