Prince Duke of Sussex Harry - Harry: the peoples prince

T ravelling on the 10.45 train from Kings Cross to Kings Lynn, the Queen arrived several days early to ensure that her meticulous arrangements for the 2007 family Christmas at Sandringham had been strictly adhered to. The festive holiday for her twenty-eight guests should go without a hitch. A fastidious organiser, Her Majesty even used to insist on helping maids to make her sons beds prior to their arrival for summer holidays in her castle at Balmoral, carefully placing favourite cuddly toys on Prince Edwards until he was in his early teens.

One by one the guests arrived on Christmas Eve, headed by Charles with Camilla who was enjoying her third yuletide at the monarchs country home after the Prince had made her both an honest woman and Harry and Williams stepmother in April 2005.

Prince William had not been allowed to invite Kate Middleton because they were not yet married or even engaged; similarly, Prince Andrew had to restrict his female company to that of his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. Charles and Andrews brother Edward, now the Earl of Wessex, arrived with wife Sophie as well as their daughter Louise and new son James. Princess Anne was accompanied by her husband, Timothy Laurence.

On arrival each paused in the grand entrance hall to admire the elaborately decorated tree a Norfolk spruce taken from the 1,000-acre estate before being ushered to their rooms.

Having changed into suitable outfits for tea, the guests assembled at precisely 4 p.m. to join the Queen and Prince Philip (who had celebrated their sixtieth anniversary the previous month) in the White Drawing Room where they enjoyed homemade scones and Earl Grey tea (Is there any other kind? Queen Mary once asked). Each of them was presented by the Master of the Household with a time-table and room plan so they would know where and when to marshal themselves.

Then it was time to place the presents they had brought for each other on trestle tables set up in the Red Drawing Room. Sections of the tables laid out in order of precedence had been marked off with tape showing where each family members gifts should be placed. In line with German tradition, the presents were then opened, for the Queen has always regarded Christmas Day as being one for religious activity, rather than giving and receiving material things.

To please the Queen, the family always compete to see who can buy the least extravagant gifts. Having learned from an earlier mistake by Princess Diana, who had bought cashmere and other luxury presents, the Duchess of York once brought a pleasing smile to her mother-in-laws face when she gave her an ashtray which spun like a top to consume and conceal its contents. A non-smoker herself, Her Majesty said it was ingenious, which is more than she had to say when she opened Harrys gift to her one year: it was a bath hat bearing the slogan Aint life a bitch! Princess Anne hit the right spot when she selected a white leather loo seat which her brother Charles still uses.

Following the lengthy present-opening ceremony, those assembled moved through to the hall for drinks beneath the tree before going back to their rooms to bathe and change once more (up to five changes a day can be required on some occasions). As they sipped their pre-bath martinis mixed to the servants special formula there was one question on everyones lips: Wheres Harry? When someone joked: Hes confined to barracks at Windsor, been a naughty boy, the Queen smiled. Only she, her husband and her eldest son were in on the secret.

While the Queen and her guests were beginning their festive celebrations, 2nd Lieutenant Wales was in fact more than 3,500 miles away in southern Helmand, the most dangerous province in war-torn Afghanistan, looking around the tiny room allocated to him in FOB (Forward Operating Base) Delhi; the ruins of a former madrasa, a school of Islamic theology once occupied by the Taliban. Even as Her Majestys guests were plumping up the pillows on the four-poster beds in the eighteenth-century mansions opulent suites, Harry the first senior royal to fight on a battlefield since Queen Victorias grandson Prince Maurice in the First World War was checking out the blanket-covered cot he would sleep in for the next several nights.

For the formal Christmas Eve dinner at Sandringham heralded (as are all the meals) by the sound of a gong at precisely 8 p.m. evening dress is obligatory: black tie for the men, gowns and jewels for the ladies. In Helmand there was no such adornment for Harry: he wore full battle rattle, including body armour, over his camouflage fatigues, and helmet, and he carried his SA80A2 rifle and 9mm pistol together with the necessary ammunition at all times. Around his neck he wore a band to which were attached his ID tags and a small quantity of morphine in case of injury. While the royals looked out on the magnificent gardens beneath the windows of the Sovereigns palace-away-from-home, the Queens grandson surveyed the rock-strewn desert which surrounded his quarters. A splash of orange here and there was the only evidence that this was the poppy breadbasket of the region but he was where he wanted to be: not for him the upstairs-downstairs,