After an education at schools in the United Kingdom and spending parts of his gap year in Australia and Lesotho, Harry chose a military career, undergoing officer training at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was commissioned as a Cornet into the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry Regiment, serving temporarily with his brother, and completed his training as a troop leader. In 2007–2008, he served for 77 days in Helmand, Afghanistan but was pulled out following publication of his presence there by an Australian magazine. He returned to Afghanistan for a 20-week deployment in 2012–2013 with the Army Air Corps. He left the army in June 2015.
Harry was born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, on 15 September 1984 at 4.20 pm. He weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces (3.12 kg).[ He was baptised on 21 December 1984 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. His godparents are the Duke of York (his paternal uncle), Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (his paternal cousin once removed), Carolyn Bartholomew (née Pride), Bryan Organ, Gerald Ward (former officer in the Household Cavalry) and Celia, Lady Vestey (née Knight).
Diana wanted Harry and William to have a broader range of experiences than previous royal children and took them to venues that ranged from Disney World and McDonald's to AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless. Harry began to accompany his parents on official visits at an early age; his first overseas royal tour was with his parents to Italy in 1985.
Harry's parents divorced in 1996, and his mother died following a car accident in Paris the following year. Harry and William were staying with their father at Balmoral at the time, and the Prince of Wales told his sons about their mother's death. At his mother's funeral, Harry, then 12, accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather, and maternal uncle, Earl Spencer, in walking behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.
Like his father and brother, Harry was educated at independent schools. He started at Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London. Following this, he attended Ludgrove School, and, after passing the entrance exams, was admitted to Eton College. The decision to place Harry at Eton went against the Windsor family tradition of sending children to Gordonstoun (Harry's grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins all attended); it did, however, see Harry follow in the Spencer family footsteps, as both Diana's father and brother attended Eton.
In June 2003, Harry completed his education at Eton with two A-Levels, (achieving a grade B in art and D in geography) having decided to drop history of art after AS level. He excelled in sports, particularly polo and rugby union. Passing two A-levels, Harry was eligible to apply for an officer commission in the British Army. One of Harry's former teachers, Sarah Forsyth, has assessed that Harry was a "weak student" and that staff at Eton conspired to help Harry cheat on examinations. Both Eton and Harry denied the claims. While a tribunal made no ruling on the cheating claim, it "accepted the prince had received help in preparing his A-level 'expressive' project, which he needed to pass to secure his place at Sandhurst".
After school, Harry took a gap year, during which he spent time in Australia, working (as his father had done in his youth) on a cattle station and participating in the Young England vs Young Australia Polo Test Match. He also travelled to Lesotho, where he worked with orphaned children and produced the documentary film The Forgotten Kingdom.
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