Queen Elizabeth Said Soldier Grandsons 'Took My Shilling' and Had to Fight in Afghanistan

Members of the British Royal Family are expected to serve stints in all the armed forces. But of King Charles III's two sons only Prince Harry fought in the Afghanistan War — as the life of first-in-line Prince William was deemed too important to risk.

Late Queen Elizabeth II wanted her grandsons William and Harry to fight in Afghanistan, a former top general has revealed.

But it was decided that the life of the older Prince William, now the first in line to the throne after current King Charles III, could not be risked as part of the British contingent in the US-led occupation.

General Sir Mike Jackson, a former chief of general staff who served several tours of duty in Northern Ireland with the Parachute Regiment, spilled the beans in a TV interview.

"What goes on in those audiences and who says what to whom remains for the two people involved, and I will break the rule about not divulging what goes on on this one occasion," the general said.

He said the late queen had told him during a private royal audience that both princes should go as they had taken 'the Queen's shilling' — an 18th-century euphemism for joining the armed forces, from the silver coin — worth just five pence in the modern decimalised system — paid to new recruits.

"She was very clear. She said, 'My grandsons have taken my shilling, therefore they must do their duty'. And that was that," Jackson stressed. "But it was decided that [for] William as heir to the heir, the risk is too great. But for his younger brother, the risk was acceptable."

Male members of the British royal family are expected to serve in the armed forces, with the sons and grandsons of the monarch rotating between the army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines. Even the late Queen and her daughter Princess Anne served in the forces — the young Princess Elizabeth driving an ambulance in the closing months of the Second World War.

Prince Harry, no longer a 'working royal after abandoning his state duties to move to California with his US actress wife, sparked controversy when he boasted in his memoir that he had killed 25 Taliban* militants as a gunner on an Apache attack helicopter.

*The Taliban is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.