Prince Philip ‘pulled strings’ for Haile Selassie when the Emperor of Ethiopia wanted his wayward grandson to go to Gordonstoun school

The Spartan regime was once described by the future King Charles as 'Colditz with kilts', who had a torrid time there.

But when Ethiopia's emperor requested a place at Gordonstoun school for his wayward grandson, believing the tough approach would help keep the prince in check, the headmaster turned him down.

Undeterred, Haile Selassie invoked one of life's oldest lessons – it's not what you know, it's who – and called on his friend, the late Duke of Edinburgh.

Papers from 1963 show that Selassie wrote to director Robert Chew that Prince Wossen Seged, then 15 years old and known to friends as Paul, had gone off the rails.

But Chew curtly informed His Imperial Majesty: “As you will no doubt understand, we are fully booked for many years and I simply don't see how I can fit in an extra boy at such short notice.”

According to The Sunday Times, British diplomats were then urged to intervene.

Correspondence from the embassy in Addis Ababa to the Foreign Office in London raised fears that the insult could fuel tensions between the two countries.

Sir John Russell, the British ambassador, suggested that senior figures should appeal directly to Chew, noting that there was 'government interest in giving this young Ethiopian prince a proper British education', but had little hope that he would admit.

Months later, he was surprised to be told by the Ethiopian justice minister that Selassie had secured a place for the boy.

Russell wrote: 'The minister said: 'When you couldn't help us, we had to pull the strings ourselves.' I suspect the oracle worked through Prince Philip.”

Philip attended boarding school in Moray in the 1930s and became friends with the Emperor during a state visit to Britain in 1954.

Prince Paul settled and did well in Scotland.