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Prince Harry: The making of a very modern prince

We knew Prince Harry was full of fun, but his triumphant Caribbean tour has revealed hidden qualities, say Iain Hollingshead and Gordon Rayner.

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Prince Harry's young life has already been chronicled in pictures of unusual power: a 12-year-old boy walking behind his mother's coffin; a foolish 20 year-old wearing a Nazi uniform to a party; a proud Apache helicopter pilot qualifying at the top of his course.

This week, some more remarkable snaps were added to the 27 year-old's family album. On a tour of the Caribbean, which began last Friday and finishes today, the energetic third-in-line to the British throne has flirted with two beauty queens, hugged a prime minister, met Bob Marley's widow, inspected an honour guard, made best friends with a blind girl, boogied with several troupes of dancers, copied the trademark pose of the Olympic 100 metres champion and won hundreds of new admirers, both young and old.

Even more remarkably, his first solo official tour has, by anyone's standards, been a thumping success. Not only has he come across as fun, relaxed and genuine, he has also displayed a hitherto unknown diplomatic sensibility. The potential embarrassment of meeting Portia Simpson Miller, the Jamaican prime minister, who said recently that she'd like to get rid of his grandmother as head of state, was defused the moment Prince Harry gave her a hug, held her hand and joked that she was his "date for tonight".

A decade ago, unkind observers might have suggested that Prince Harry, with his grade D in geography A level, would have had trouble finding Jamaica on a map. So what has been the making of this very modern prince?

A Palace source attributes his charge's new-found maturity to the gruelling 18-month Apache training he completed in February. "He has the discipline to sit down and do the preparation to a greater extent than he perhaps would have done in the past," he says. "He so wants to do right by his grandmother. This tour is a big moment for him."

The Prince's trusted advisers, who include Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former SAS officer, and Sir David Manning, the former ambassador to Washington, are understandably anxious to dispel any notion of the Playboy Prince. Harry's enjoyment of a rum party in Belize on Friday night appeared to be in inverse proportion to that of his aides. And yet he is at his best when he is least chaperoned, performing a role that no other member of the royal family - and certainly no elected politician - could play with such aplomb.

Put him near a crowd and he plunges joyfully towards the nearest child to say hello. If there's even a hint of dancing, he's on his feet and grinding away with almost alarming familiarity; regardless, it's impossible not to grin along with him at the sheer Tiggerish fun of it all. Even an inspection of the Jamaican Defence Force honour guard is an opportunity for a joke and a smile.

To perhaps the surprise of many, Prince Harry has shown the relevance of a royal tour in the 21st century. Unlike his helicopter-flying uncle, he has shown that there can be a role abroad that doesn't involve flogging stuff to dubious people. He has none of his father's awkwardness or his older brother's more sober sense of restricted responsibility and - although he is understandably thought to loathe the endless comparisons in the media - he has inherited his mother's ability to talk on the same level to both crowds and kings. He is a plucky, warm-hearted and wonderfully irreverent embodiment of the best of Britain's younger generations.

A particular highlight of this week's tour came on Tuesday, when Prince Harry met Usain Bolt, the Olympic 100 metres champion, at a stadium in Kingston. Eschewing the standard stage-managed photo call, he instead challenged the sprinter to a race, beat him by cheekily stealing a head start and then took part in an impromptu - and very rare - Q & A with athletes afterwards.

"I was told I wasn't allowed to talk and nobody would ask me any questions - it's going quite well," quipped the Prince, looking natural as he exchanged banter with a charmed Bolt about being "too busy" to re-race him at London 2012. An aide admitted afterwards: "Maybe we should take this on board."

Certainly, Prince Harry is at his weakest when doing something with which he clearly feels uncomfortable - notably reading a speech written by someone else, stumbling awkwardly over words and jokes that are not his own. "Each member of the royal family brings their own skills to the job," says a Palace source. "Prince Harry very much suits the informality of the Caribbean nation. Queen Elizabeth specifically chose these countries for him to visit because she felt it was a good fit."

Prince Harry is said to be "really, really pleased" with the way the tour has gone. And the affection appears to be mutual; his every public appearance has been met with girlish screams and manly affirmations of approval. "Like what you're doing, man," shouted out one onlooker when he went to Harbour Island. "He is cool. He is awesome," said another.

And although the BBC didn't turn up to film the Prince until he arrived in Jamaica on Monday, he has been followed by four US networks throughout. According to Max Foster of CNN, their audience's interest in the royal family ranks the younger prince in third place - after the Duchess of Cambridge and her sister, but considerably higher than his older brother. Viewers, says Foster, are fascinated by this authentic, eligible bachelor who walked the future queen's sister down the aisle at the end of the wedding last year.

If Prince Harry carries on like this, he might even give Pippa's bottom a run for its money. He has certainly looked the part over the last week, whether wearing a linen suit with sunglasses, brown (and indeed blue) suede shoes, black tie, the Tropical No 1 uniform of the Blues & Royals or a polyester Jamaican running shirt.

Of course, the interesting question such a successful tour raises is whether we can expect a repeat performance sometime soon. Prince Harry, who was given special leave from the Army for this visit, is thought likely to return to Afghanistan later this year. There are also the distractions of the Olympics and the domestic Jubilee celebrations to come.

And yet having discovered such a formidable weapon — a soldier with rhythm; a diplomat with charm; an innocent abroad who is willing to listen and to learn — the Royal family would be foolish not to deploy him elsewhere as soon as they can. If only Iran were in the Commonwealth, Lowther-Pinkerton could dispatch him - with a heavily armed guard - to give that nice Ahmadinejad a hug.

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