A royal biographer has revealed the nickname given to Prince William when the future king was a little terror at nursery school.
Now every inch the prim and proper Duke of Cambridge, as a youngster he was known for getting into the odd scrap at home and at school.
Such were his exploits, royal biographer Robert Lacey revealed he earned a nickname as far removed from today’s image as possible.
He wrote in his book Battle of Brothers William was once known as Basher Wills or Billy the Basher, according to My London.
Lacey wrote: “The young prince had picked up his nicknames of ‘Basher Wills’ or ‘Billy the Basher’ when he joined Mrs Jane Mynors’ Nursery School in Notting Hill, not far from Kensington Palace, in September 1985.
"Noisy, cheeky and defiant of discipline, Wills soon angered his classmates by pushing his way to the front of the dinner queue and getting involved in playground fights.
“The Prince's mother, Princess Diana, once even called her son 'a holy terror'."
As a four-year-old Prince William revealed his cheeky side at the 1986 wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson when he was seen yawning, distracting his cousins and knocking his sailor’s hat askew.
In a separate book by royal writer Tina Brown, Princess Diana describes her eldest son as “dashing about bumping into tables and lamps, breaking everything in sight.
She wrote: ”By the time he was four, he had the unattractive habit of yapping at his nanny, Barbara Barnes, ‘No one tells me what to do! When I am king I will have you punished'.“
Last week, as thousands of students discovered their A-level result, another book revealed the Duchess of Cambridge’s nickname during her own university days.
Author Katie Nicholl wrote in Kate: The Future Queen, Kate had a "hectic week of partying, meeting her 'university parents - older pupils who were in charge of looking after freshers - finding her way around town and settling into her residence hall".
She explains: "Kate soon found her way around and was often seen relaxing in the common room, curled up in an armchair, a cup of tea in hand, either reading newspaper articles her father rather touchingly mailed to her or getting to know her fellow hall mates.
“William arrived at St Andrews the following week - and it didn't take him long to notice his future wife, probably because of the nickname she was given by her peers.
According to Katie, she had been dubbed 'Beautiful Kate' by the end of Freshers' Week.
She writes: "She was initially more reserved than many of the other young women, but her natural beauty was apparent.”
