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King Charles’s experience being bullied at Gordonstoun School will ultimately make him a “kinder” monarch, according to one of his peers at the institution. Charles was sent to the school to follow in the footsteps of his father Prince Philip, who “prospered” there, however as Johnny Stonborough remembered neither he nor the King sent their own sons to study at Gordonstoun. Princes William and Harry were sent to Eton instead, perhaps because of their father’s own unhappy school memories.

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Mr Stonborough, who was at Gordonstoun with the King, said Charles as a schoolboy was “painfully shy” and acknowledged he was “by no means the only junior bullied by marauding gangs of older boys at a British public school”.

He told The Telegraph: “But the first time I saw the bullying for myself was playing rugby.

“A couple of the boys decided it would be funny to “do” him. This meant punching him, pulling his ears, all out of sight in the scrum.

“He never said a word. He just got on with it. Never complain, never explain. It was drummed into my generation, backed up with Gordonstoun’s own motto of Plus est en vous – There is more in you [than you think].”

Gordonstoun is situated in the far north of Scotland on the Moray Firth, to the east of the Highland city of Inverness.

The freezing temperatures and total lack of pastoral care led Charles to nickname his old school “Colditz in a kilt”, with students forced to go on shirtless early morning runs no matter the weather.

Mr Stonborough pointed out how hard it was to become friends with the future King as those who tried to talk to him were themselves teased.

Despite this, he added Charles was bright and may have been happier in his lessons.

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The King’s late grandmother, the Queen Mother, had argued for him to be sent to Eton – instead of Gordonstoun.

His paternal grandmother reportedly felt the now-King would be better off at the “staunchly protestant” Eton.

According to a collection of her previously unpublished letters, the Queen Mother – who died in 2002 – thought Charles would be miserable at Gordonstoun.

The Queen Mother reportedly told the late Queen that her eldest son would be “terribly cut off and lonely in the far north”.

The late royal shared a close bond with her grandson, with their bond closely documented over the years.

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