Royal Beards

Newspapers and websites are reporting that The Queen "intensely dislikes" facial hair and has "ordered" her grandson Prince Harry to shave the beard he acquired during his recent charity trek to the Antarctic. I would never presume to know the Sovereign's view on beards, but almost all the male members of her family have sported beards at some point:

When The Queen was born, her beloved grandfather, King George V, sported the most famous beard in the land:

HM King George V

During the Second World War, The Queen's future husband kept to naval traditions by cultivating an impressive beard:

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

Like father, like son:

HRH The Prince of Wales

Beards were all the rage in the 1970s:

HRH The Duke of York

And every generation of royal seems keen to try the look:

HRH The Duke of Cambridge

One wonders what the King of Beards is thinking today...

HRH Prince Michael of Kent

And if beards are a bit too much, there's always the moustache. In 1975 HRH The Prince of Wales shaved off the beard he had acquired during a naval tour of the Canadian Arctic but kept his moustache for his installation as Great Master of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath at Westminster Abbey: