Bearded William is trying to be the David Beckham of the Royal Family, and it just won’t do: AN WILSON

If you were wondering whether the Prince of Wales has been doing anything useful during his summer vacation, look no further. He has been sporting a designer beard.

Prince William and Princess Catherine emerged from their Norfolk abode over the weekend to release a video congratulating Team GB on their Olympic achievements. And they did it in a very polite manner.

But…what the hell was this? He had a beard, or as he would probably like us to say, he was “rocking” a beard.

Why did he grow this regrettable bristles? Maybe it’s his way of telling us, in a provocative way, that he’s free with his family – on vacation, taking time away and demonstrably relaxing.

Some claim it is a dig at his estranged brother, Prince Harry.

In his memoir Spare, Harry recounts how the subject of beards came up between them. Apparently, William wanted a beard when he married Kate Middleton, and the Queen put her foot down and demanded that he go through the ceremony clean-shaven.

However, when Harry married Meghan Markle, He had begun to grow an ugly red beard, and – he claimed – the queen had given her blessing to his facial fungus. This was reportedly one of the common ground that fueled the quarrel between the two princes.

Whether or not this story is true, and whether or not Willem is showing off his whiskers to annoy his brother, we have to hope that he gets shaved as soon as possible.

William has of course grown a beard before, during a ten-day training exercise with the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service in Barbados in 2008.

King Charles also made a name for himself in 1976 as Prince of Wales, when he was given command of his own ship, the minehunter HMS Bronington, after completing lieutenant training at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

Harry and Megan on their wedding day

Brothers at war, Harry and William

It is also true that some royal ancestors – Edward VII and George V, for example – prided themselves on not shaving.

Edward VII was one of that mysterious generation of European men who, from about 1860 to 1910, all grew facial hair. Men in Western Europe had been clean-shaven since the time of the Roman emperors, and this generation really let themselves go – with the likes of scientist Charles Darwin, novelist Anthony Trollope and others not only sporting beards but facial hair that definitely suggested the nature of Santa Claus.

Queen Victoria was fond of beards, especially after she fell in love with her bearded Highland ghillie, John Brown, in the 1860s. According to Julian Farrance, a senior curator at the National Army Museum, she found the beards of the Crimean War heroes “very masculine”.

But in the decade following her death in 1901, the beard habit disappeared. Thereafter, beards were confined to, on the one hand, artists and the like, who wore them to distinguish themselves from respectable suburban lads who had to stand up every morning at 8:15 in a stiff collar, suit and bowler hat, and, on the other, naval officers.

King George V was primarily a naval officer and his beard made him virtually indistinguishable from his cousin, the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II.

No one complains about bearded royals while serving in the navy, as Charles and William did when they were growing up. It is perfectly reasonable that sailors should not shave on the high seas, where the rolling of the ship in stormy waves would make wielding a knife a dangerous undertaking.

But this isn’t the kind of beard William has. It’s more of a design statement, an attempt to look a bit hip. Is it a coincidence that in the video where he congratulates Team GB, the other two men with stubble, carefully shaped little chin-rows are David Beckham and Snoop Dogg?

We’re not complaining about David Beckham wearing such an unattractive facial decoration, because a meterosexual is what he has emphatically and deliberately portrayed himself as. isBut we don’t want the Prince of Wales to be that kind of figure.

No one is pushing for Prince William to follow his father’s fashion instincts. Charles – perhaps the best-dressed, and certainly the best-dressed man on the planet – wanted to be an old fart from the age of 11 and has defied fashion ever since. We want William to look like a young, middle-aged man of his generation, and he doesn’t necessarily have to be an old chap.

But the kind of beard he wears – like his brother Harry’s – sends out the wrong signals. It’s urban chic.

Royal characters should always look well-groomed, whether they are formally dressed or on occasions where casual clothing is required. But they should not be chic. They should be above fashion.

And that’s what makes me cringe at Prince William’s effort. He’s trying to be the David Beckham of the Royal Family, and it’s not working. Please, sir – shave it off.