Royal baby: How the papers reported the birth of Prince Charles and Prince William

As newspapers and the public clamour for information about the new royal baby, Yahoo! News looks at how the press reported the births of the other future kings.

The birth of Prince Charles

On the 15th November 1948 – the day after Prince Charles was born - The Guardian, formerly know as the Manchester Guardian, reported he was born in a room on the first floor of Buckingham Palace overlooking the Mall. It was the first royal birth at the palace since Lady Patricia Ramsay, daughter of the first Duke of Connaught, was born there in 1886.

The Duke of Edinburgh was said to have opened a bottle of champagne and with members of his staff drank to the health of the new prince.

The Times described how prior to the birth, a crowd had gathered outside the palace throughout the day ‘watching the windows and hoping for news’.

“It was a quiet crowd but there was an atmosphere of subdued excitement.”

The Daily Telegraph describes how at 10.10pm that evening a police officer returned to the main gate and announced with a smile: “It is all over. A son has been born. It’s a prince.”

The paper goes on to say: “People in the crowd asked ‘Is it true? Is the baby born?’ and the officer announced in a loud voice ‘Yes you can all go home. A prince has been born’ At 11.30pm the official notice in a gilt frame covered by glass was hung on the palace railings.”

The Guardian said there were scenes of joy and excitement outside the palace.

“The crowds were still cheering at midnight but disappeared soon afterwards in response to an appeal by two officials of the Royal household who said: ‘Princess Elizabeth wants to have some rest’.”

The BBC interrupted its programmes to announce the royal birth and even cancelled a show, instead playing ‘suitable records including Brahms’ Lullaby and Shepherd’s Cradle Song’.

The Daily Telegraph reported: “At 11.55pm Queen Mary left the palace. Her car surrounded by cheering people and forced to a standstill. It could be seen that there were tears in Her Majesty’s eyes. She waved and smiled.”

The following day a statement was released to the Press from 10 Downing Street saying the Cabinet had expressed their ‘deep satisfaction at the birth of a son to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh’.

On November 16th, the Guardian’s London correspondent tried to capture the mood in the capital (or at least in one restaurant in the city): “The flags were out in London today and few citizens have not heard guns or church bells celebrating the birth of a prince. The news has made people extraordinarily happy. ‘Bless her,’ said a buxom waitress tenderly at luncheon. ‘And a boy too.’ The most important news of the event today was the weight of the baby which was given as 7lbs 6oz. Women say that this is just about what the weight of a boy should be.”

Following the first reports, there wasn’t much news surrounding the new royal baby until Dec 15th that year – the day of his christening - when it was officially announced that Prince Charles would be christened Charles Philip Arthur George.

The birth of Prince William

On 22nd June 1982 - the day after Prince William was born - the Daily Express ran the headline ‘It’s a boy!’ on its front page.

It describes how Prince Charles had food sent in from the palace to keep him going during the ‘long night’ as Princess Diana was in labour and how, as he left London’s St Mary’s Hospital, the Prince was mobbed.

The paper wrote: "As he left the hospital Prince Charles grasped the outstretched hands thrust towards him from the crowd saying ‘Thank you. Thank you all so very much. This has been a wonderful night. It’s too early to say who he looks like; the whole thing is overwhelming’.”

Princess Diana gave birth in a £126.90-a-day, 12ft by 12ft room, one of 54 private beds in the hospital’s Lindo wing, according to The Times.

The paper says Prince Charles told reporters that his son was in ‘marvellous form’ but he ‘would not commit himself to when he and the princess might have another child. “Give us a chance. You ask my wife. I don’t think she would be too pleased just yet.”’

The Times goes on to report how Prince Charles described the birth: “The prince, who was present at the birth, said: ‘It is rather a grown up thing, I found. Rather a shock to the system.’ Asked about names for the boy he said they had thought of one or two, but there had been a bit of an argument, although they would think of one eventually.”

It appears there wasn’t just tension about names.

The Daily Express describes how Princess Diana had confided in a woman in the crowd at her last public appearance before the birth: “She told an onlooker in London’s Docklands that her husband had been buying lots of books about pregnancy. In whispered confidence to this woman, whom she had never met, the mother-to-be said ‘Charles keeps giving me lots of advice’. Then rather pointedly she added ‘and I can tell you, I don’t like it’”.

The Daily Mail reported how crowds waited in the rain, singing, opening champagne and toasting the windows of the hospital ‘with new net curtains’.

It said: “There was money to be made in the crowd and groups came in selling flags, tea and strawberries and cream at 75p a plate.”

“The announcement was on a strip of cardboard cut from a box and wedged through the railings of St Mary’s ‘It’s a boy’.”

The crowd sang ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘Nice one Charlie, let’s have another one,’ The Times reports.

Later the Prince asked the cheering crowds to make a ‘little less noise’.

It wasn’t just the new royal parents who were congratulated on the birth of their baby. Princess Margaret was also said to have received a ‘rapturous ovation’ from the musical ‘Song And Dance’ when Wayne Sleep, the star of the show, broke the news of Prince William’s birth after the performance. “Theatregoers stood up and applauded the princess who had made a private visit to the Palace Theatre in the West End.”

Although only a few hours old, The Daily Mail took the opportunity to remind baby William of his responsibilities, outlining the requirements for a prince.

“A young prince must learn to seem intelligent enough to have his own opinions, but skilful enough to avoid expressing them. He must always look smart, but never look overdressed. When he wishes to express concern he must do so without anxiety or sentimentality and while appearing serene he must never be suspected of indifference. He must be a hard worker but he must never look overworked and if mastering all those contradictions make him feel that he must be very clever indeed, then cleverness is the last thing that he should display. He must be the same as other people but somehow different – and he must also be unfailingly interested in absolutely everything.”

On June 23rd, The Daily Mirror reported how ‘Di had done it again – giving us all another surprise.’

The report said: “Amazing girl that she is, she skipped out of that hospital last evening with her baby in what must be record time: Just 21 hours after his birth.”

The journalist goes on to write how Diana ‘unlike any other wife I have ever come across wasn’t making the usual big production out of giving birth’ and that she looked ‘radiant and stunning’.

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