During his first official solo trip to Australia and NewZealand Prince William shown off his military skills with Australian troops at Holsworthy Barracks.
Prince William, 27-year-old, armed with an S-89 Minimi machine gun lined side by side with Australian paratroopers from the 3rd battalion. Prince William was declared a natural, scoring a pass mark to qualify in the paratroops.
Private Tom Quirke, 21, from Wollongong, who met Prince William two years ago, laughed with the Prince at the memory of their first meeting while the royals were touring Holsworthy.
Tom said: “We had a chat about running into each other in a nightclub two years ago in York. There was a big kerfuffle in the back of the club someone said Prince William is here, I thought when am I going to meet a Prince again so I went over and shook his hand”.
“He didn’t remember (our meeting) today. He said he fell over that night. He was a bit under the weather (on that night). The soldiers gave Prince William an Australian army slouch hat but it was too small when he tried it on.
“It’s the thought that counts,” Prince William said.
Prince William is now heading off to Garden Island before he has a BBQ at the Botanical Gardens where thousands of members of the public are expected to gather to catch him in the flesh.
