Prince Harry to Receive Medal

Prince Harry and his comrades from Afghanistan will march through the streets of Windsor as they receive their campaign medals.

The 23-year-old Prince, known as Lieutenant Wales, will be among around 160 members of the Household Cavalry who served there this winter to receive the decoration which will be presented by his aunt the Princess Royal.

The event will have be given added poignancy by the death on Friday of a member of Household Cavalry, Trooper Ratu Babakobau, 29, from Fiji, who was killed by a mine strike in Nowzad, northern Helmand. The regiment has a large Fijian component several of whom served alongside Harry in Afghanistan earlier this year.

The Prince and his brother William paid tribute to Trooper Babakobau over the weekend.

Harry secretly flew to Helmand Province in mid-December to work as a Forward Air Controller, having retrained after his earlier planned tour of duty to Iraq was cancelled because of the security risk generated by publicity.

But the intended four-month deployment was cut short after 10 weeks when a news blackout broke down at the end of February.

He qualifies for the Afghanistan Medal, having served well over the minimum four-week period required. It will be the second medal he is entitled to wear on regimental occasions, alongside the Golden Jubilee Medal, a gift from the Queen marking her 50-year reign in 2002.

He is the first member of the Royal Family to see active service in a theatre of war since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters in the Falklands War 26 years ago.

During his time in Helmand he patrolled on foot 500m from Taliban lines, called in air strikes on enemy positions and commanded two Spartan light tank crews providing flank protection during an operation involving Afghan and US forces.