Andrew’s Schoolmates Open Up About His Arrogance and Bullying Streak: 'You Do Know Who I Am?'
The Duke who demanded bows, berated staff, and bullied peers long before the Palace finally turned its back.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has long been known for his arrogance and was described as rude, domineering, and infamous for belittling those who served him. His downfall has since become a cautionary tale, marked by scandals, entitlement, and lack of self-awareness, all culminating in his recent stripping of his titles, styles, and honors. In Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, royal historian Andrew Lownie revisited the former Prince's early years at the famously tough Scottish boarding school, Gordonstoun, and revealed the early signs of the man he would later become.
King Charles, who attended the same Scottish school, famously described it as Colditz in kilts', i.e., a living hell, as per the Daily Mail. Mountbatten Windsor’s experience, however, was the complete opposite. While his elder brother endured, Mountbatten Windsor seemed to thrive, though, as his classmates recall, not for admirable reasons. A former schoolmate described him as “a very slimy so-and-so, arrogant, pleased with himself, a bully.” Another remembered, “He was so full of himself” and would often say, “'You do know who I am?'” “People were wary of him,” an ex-student told Lownie, recalling how young Mountbatten Windsor carried himself as if the crown rested on his head.
Even among the staff, his reputation wasn’t flattering. A former housemaster admitted Mountbatten Windsor’s time at Gordonstoun "was hardly ever mentioned" compared to that of his brothers. “All I had heard about Mountbatten Windsor was that he was a bully,” he said. Among peers, the consensus wasn’t much kinder, albeit mixed. “The boys thought he was a wally and a tosser,” a classmate recalled. Still, Mountbatten Windsor maintained what Lownie calls an “ever-changing circle of female conquests,” earning him the later nickname Randy Andy.
That would go on to define him well into adulthood. Ian Hendry, who trained with him at Dartmouth Naval College, said Mountbatten Windsor “was born in the wrong age” and “would have been happier as an Edwardian gentleman.” According to Hendry, “He puts on his royal hat to protect himself — that’s his veneer. Barriers were put up as a coping mechanism, and he became bombastic.”
But unlike what many would have thought, age did not soften him at all. At the Royal Naval Air Station in Culdrose, Cornwall, fellow officers saw him as 'toffee-nosed' and 'sheltered.' A colleague recalled, “He wants his own way when he is around — you have to bow and scrape. Even when he drives around the base in his car, you have to salute that. I mean, fancy saluting a flipping car.”
The same sense of entitlement followed him into royal life. Lownie recounts that Mountbatten Windsor treated Palace staff as if they existed solely to serve him. He allegedly made maids climb four flights of stairs to open his curtains, even when he was lying right beside them. Staff were reportedly instructed to bow each time he entered a room, and if someone forgot, he’d step out and say, “Let’s try that again.” His quirks bordered on the absurd. The Sun had earlier revealed that Mountbatten Windsor kept around 60 stuffed toys arranged with military precision on his bed. Maids were given a laminated photo guide showing where each toy belonged because if even one was out of place, he would reportedly 'shout and scream.'
