It seems Prince George will be following the royal footsteps taken by his father, the Prince of Wales, and uncle, Prince Harry. Kensington Palace confirmed that the future King will be attending Eton College as of September this year. Much like the young royals, I myself was educated at Eton — except I certainly wasn’t following in any footsteps.
Decidedly non-aristocratic and non-English in lineage, I was one of the handful of Italians at the school, possibly the first Italian to win the King’s Scholarship back in 2010 — the competitive exam which picks just over a dozen boys every year. When I put on the gown with “K.S.” sewn in the label, and posed for an official snap in front of the statue of Henry VI, my family was gleaming with pride. “You’re only 13 and you’ve already made it”, my grandmother beamed. From that moment on, the gown would weigh down on me, both making my future — and breaking my mental health in the process.
From the outset, it’s worth underlining that many of the rumours surrounding Eton – from Victorian corporal punishments to “fagging”, the bygone system where younger boys would act as servants for the seniors – are pure folklore. The school has all sets of idiosyncratic traditions and an arcane lexicon, true: I remember sitting in Chapel on weekday mornings, and reciting Latin prayers on Sunday. I remember selecting waistcoats at the end of summer for my School Dress.
