“I find it hard to believe that it’s been 44 years since I became your Colonel in Chief and nearly 50 years since I made my first parachute drop, initially upside down with my legs in the rigging lines, into Studland Bay, Dorset, where I was pulled out of the water by the Royal Marines.”

July 2021

The prince was 23 years old undergoing jet flying training  at Cranwell when he completed his first parachute drop on July 29 1971 from an Andover aircraft into Studland Bay, Dorset.

Upon his appointment as Colonel in Chief of The Parachute Regiment in 1977, the prince requested to join a parachute training course at RAF Brize Norton in 1978.