Other family members to attend Marlborough include Prince George’s aunt and uncle, Pippa Matthews and James Middleton, as well as his father’s cousin, Princess Eugenie. Famous alumni include the poet John Betjeman, the artist William Morris, and Samantha Cameron, fashion designer and wife of former British Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Were George to attend Marlborough, it wouldn’t be the first time that an heir to the throne’s education has broken with tradition. Indeed, Eton as a royal rite of passage is a relatively new thing. Prince William was actually the first major royal to enroll at Eton, as his father, Prince Charles, and grandfather, Prince Philip, and uncles Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were all educated at the Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun.
So why did Prince Charles and Princess Diana choose to send William to Eton? The top private school—which counts 20 former Prime Ministers amongst its former pupils—was first and foremost a lot closer to home than Gourdonstoun, and was renowned for its unofficial status as a feeder school to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, and father, John, 8th Earl Spencer, were both Old Etonians, and it was widely rumored that Prince Charles had wanted to attend the school. It also wasn’t totally without royal precedent, as three of the Queen’s cousins, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince Michael of Kent, were also former pupils, and the Queen herself had undertaken lessons in constitutional history there.