Aberdeen will prepare a regal welcome next week when His Royal Highness, Prince Henry, visits the Granite City for the first time since childhood.
Her Majesty’s grandson, better known as Harry, will make his first official trip to the north-east where he will visit a number of projects which lend succour to young people.
The army veteran, who served tours of Afghanistan with the Blues and Royals, will visit two projects in Aberdeen and one in Aberdeenshire on Tuesday.
The engagements he will carry out include a training day at Stonehaven’s Mackie Academy, Streetsport at Robert Gordon University and Transition Extreme Sports in Aberdeen.
His Royal Highness celebrates his 32nd birthday this week and is a frequent visitor to Balmoral.
But his most recent trip to the Granite City, apart from the airport, is believed to be in 2002 when he was a teenager.
In April, 1994, before his mother’s tragic death in 1997, the Press and Journal reported that the Prince and his brother William were being taught to shoot on the Balmoral Estate.
The piece added: “Estate gamekeepers are under orders to take William (11) and Harry (9) out shooting during their visit, despite Diana’s concerns about the blood sport.”
The unmarried royal is renowned for his shock of ginger hair and known for his laidback approach to meeting the public after dispensing with royal protocol to serve directly on the front line.
He had drawn comparisons with his late mother for his dedication to charity work.
Last week, Prince Harry privately returned to Mildmay Hospital, his second visit in the past year to the London hospital which treats people with AIDS and HIV.
Diana famously ended the stigma around AIDS when she visited the same hospital in the 1980s.
Harry’s highest-profile role this year was enlisting the president and first lady of the United States and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to promote the Invictus Games, which he founded so that wounded military veterans could compete in sporting events.
His visit to Aberdeen is expected to draw large crowds.
