Cadet fury as Prince Harry trains as officer

PRINCE Harry received special coaching to get him through his Sandhurst entrance exam, the News of the World can reveal.

Harry—at the centre of claims a teacher was asked to give him unfair help with his art AS level—passed the military test with flying colours.

But the prince had been given guidance from Sandhurst's former commandant, SAS legend Major General Arthur Denaro. He is one of Prince Charles's closest confidants.

In the run-up to Harry's Regular Commissioning Board tests the general became a mentor.

Now officer cadets at Sandhurst are angry at the "special treatment" Harry, 20, is said to have been given.

A source close to one cadet said: "It was a certainty that he'd pass with a former commandant on his training team. He may well be a good soldier and become a great officer but he still has a lot to prove."

Guests

The prince has also been lucky enough to get on well with Sandhurst's current commandant, Major-General Andrew Ritchie.

At a polo match at Sandhurst last July, two months before Harry took his entrance exam, guests were surprised at how warmly he was greeted. Harry got a kiss from the commandant's blonde wife.

One observer said: "The commandant was smiling so broadly he looked like he was next in line after his wife.

"The general would never allow personal feelings to affect his judgement on a cadet, but it raised eyebrows."

Harry will be four months into his officer training before an employment tribunal takes up the case of his sacked Eton art teacher Sarah Forsyth —revealed by the News of the World last week.

And the judgement might not come for another two months after the case is finished.

Ms Forsyth, 30, claims she was unfairly dismissed after following orders to help Harry cheat for his AS-level exam, which went towards his A-level.

Work

She even secretly taped what she claims is the prince's confession that he did little of the written work.

But defence chiefs have given the prince the all-clear to begin training at Sandhurst in January.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Although academic qualifications are important as a benchmark for students, we place rather more emphasis on the way they perform our own entrance exams.

"It's no secret that Harry passed his over the summer with flying colours."