Prince George Begins at Eton Where Prince Harry Once Struggled to Find His Place

Prince George has now entered the same school where his father, Prince William, and uncle, Prince Harry, spent some of their teenage years. But although the setting is familiar, his experience at Eton College is beginning under very different circumstances from Harry’s.

On Sept. 8, 2026, the 13-year-old Prince George arrived at Eton with Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales. Photographs from his first day showed him in the school’s distinctive black tailcoat, waistcoat, pinstriped trousers and stiff white collar, the same formal dress worn by his father and uncle before him.

The image of George beginning boarding school has inevitably brought attention back to Harry’s own arrival at Eton in 1998. For Harry, having William already at the school did not provide the reassurance he had expected.

In fact, he later described his brother’s distance as one of the painful parts of his early experience there.

Harry expected his brother to look after him

Harry discussed his memories of Eton in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy. While looking at a photograph of himself and William, he remembered arriving at school with a simple expectation: his older brother would be there for him.

“Probably my first day,” Harry recalled. “Me turning up thinking, ‘I’ve got my older brother at the school, he’ll be looking after me.’ When, in fact, you just ignored me.”

William, who was also appearing in the documentary, responded with a smile. He did not dispute his brother’s account.

Years later, Harry returned to the subject in his interview with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes. He said William had told him to behave as though they did not know each other while they were at school.

“At the time it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it,” Harry said.

For Harry, the rejection was particularly difficult because he had imagined Eton as an opportunity to be closer to the brother he had not seen as much after the death of their mother, Princess Diana.

His own description of the situation was blunt. As the younger brother, he said, “that sucks.”

The memory has remained part of Harry’s broader account of growing up in the aftermath of Diana’s death. He was 12 when she was killed in Paris in August 1997, and he has said that he and William responded to the loss in very different ways.

Sport became Harry’s refuge

Academically, Eton was not an easy fit for Harry either.

“I was one of those kids at school who did not enjoy classroom work,” he told TIME magazine.

Sport, however, gave him something he could connect with.

“Sport held me together,” Harry said.

That distinction is important to understanding the way Harry has described his years at Eton. The difficulty was not simply the demands of an elite boarding school. He was also trying to establish himself socially and personally at a formative age, while carrying the emotional weight of losing his mother.

The combination left him with memories of Eton that were far more complicated than the polished photographs of a young prince in the school’s formal uniform might suggest.

What makes Eton so distinctive

Eton College was founded by King Henry VI in 1440. Its foundation charter, dated Oct. 11 that year, established the school as part of Henry’s wider vision for the institution.

Today, Eton is an independent boys’ boarding school for more than 1,300 pupils. Its students live in 25 boarding houses spread throughout the town.

The school has its own vocabulary, customs and rituals, many of which can seem unfamiliar to a new pupil.

A piece of poor work, for example, can receive a “rip,” a term linked to the old practice of a master tearing the top of a page. Repeated rips can lead to a “white ticket,” a formal progress report.

Senior prefects are known as “Pop.”

Then there is the Wall Game, one of Eton’s most unusual traditions. Played against a brick wall dating to 1717, the game has rules and terminology that are distinctive to the school. Goals are exceptionally rare. In one recent match, a goal was scored for the first time since 2016, after years of 0-0 draws.

New boys must also learn the geography and traditions of their new surroundings. Among the challenges is the colors test, which requires them to learn the locations of school buildings and the official colors associated with Eton’s 25 boarding houses.

Harry went through those rituals. William did too. George now joins the same tradition.

The same school, but a very different beginning

That is where the comparison between Harry and George becomes most striking.

Harry entered Eton in 1998, only a year after the death of his mother. William was already there, but Harry has said that his older brother deliberately kept his distance from him at school. His memories of those years therefore include both the pressures of boarding school and the loneliness he associated with his relationship with William.

George arrived in September 2026 in a markedly different family situation.

His parents, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, accompanied him to Eton for his first day. The school is also close to the family’s home in Windsor, making it possible for George to remain geographically near his parents while beginning boarding school.

The decision to send him to Eton was made after William and Catherine considered a number of schools. Eton’s proximity to the family home was one practical advantage, while William’s own experience there also gives George a parent who already understands the institution from the inside.

George follows William and Harry through the same gates

George’s arrival also adds another chapter to a family connection with Eton that began with his father.

William entered Eton in 1995, becoming the first senior royal to attend the school. Harry followed in 1998, joining his brother there.

Now George has followed both of them.

The photographs from his first day made the connection especially visible. Dressed in Eton’s traditional school dress, George looked remarkably at home in an outfit that has become closely associated with generations of Eton pupils, including his father and uncle.

But the circumstances surrounding his arrival are what set his story apart.

Harry once arrived believing that having William nearby would make the transition easier. Instead, he found himself struggling with schoolwork, social adjustment and the distance between the brothers.

George has entered Eton with both parents beside him, a father who knows the school personally and a home only a short distance away.

Eton may be familiar, but George’s story will be his own

The traditions George is encountering are much the same ones that greeted Harry decades earlier. The boarding houses remain. The formal uniform remains. The unusual vocabulary, demanding routines and distinctive customs remain.

What has changed is the boy walking through the gates and the circumstances surrounding him.

Harry’s memories show how difficult Eton could feel when combined with grief, academic struggles and a sense of isolation from his older brother. His own words make clear that sport became an important source of stability during those years.

George begins from a different place.

He is the son of two parents who have remained closely involved in his education and who accompanied him on the first morning of this new chapter. He is also entering a school his father already knows intimately, while living close enough to home for family life to remain within reach.

Eton will still demand that George adapt to its traditions, routines and expectations. Every new pupil has to find his place there.

But the school George entered on Sept. 8, 2026, may look familiar to Harry when he remembers it. The experience waiting for his nephew is not the one Harry had in 1998.

The gates are the same. The beginning is not.