LAURA MAY
The Queen yesterday spoke with pride about Prince Harry's deployment to Afghanistan as she said her 23-year-old grandson had performed "a good job in a very difficult climate".
It emerged earlier that the Queen, a strong supporter of Harry's desire to serve on the front line, had broken the news to him of his deployment after seeing his frustration at being unable to serve in Iraq.
The subject of Harry's stint in Afghanistan was raised as the monarch opened the Queen's Court Care Home, built on the site of the royal borough's old Warden's Lodge residential home in Windsor.
One of the residents, 81-year-old John Cooke, reminded the Queen that during the Second World War he had guarded her while she was still Princess Elizabeth.
Mr Cooke brought up the subject of Harry's deployment to Afghanistan and praised him for his work with the Army. The Queen seemed happy to chat about the subject and also remarked on an injury suffered by another member of Harry's regiment.
However, she later avoided the news stands filled with pictures of her grandson in his army combat gear as she toured a Windsor supermarket. The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the shop as part of a tour of the King Edward Court shopping centre redevelopment.
She and the Duke chatted to staff in high street stores such as Top Shop and H&M. They smiled and chatted briefly with the large crowd which had gathered to watch the Queen unveil a plaque, but stayed off the subject of Harry.
The Queen's praise of her grandson was echoed by Defence Secretary Des Browne, who hailed Prince Harry as an example of a generation of young people willing to put themselves in danger for Britain's security.
Speaking during a visit to HMS Gannet, a search and rescue centre in Ayrshire, Mr Browne paid tribute to the Household Cavalry officer. He said: "I am delighted Prince Harry was able to deploy to Afghanistan and to work with those who he trained with and do what he was trained to do as a soldier.
"I think he is an example of a generation of young people who are prepared to take on these very serious and dangerous tasks for our security.
"He was only able to do that because of the co-operation of the media who exercised a degree of discipline and I think they have to be commended for allowing him the space and time so we could manage the risks associated with that."
Mr Browne made no comment on Harry's withdrawal from Afghanistan, but said it was "disappointing" the story had broken in the foreign media.
He said: "We expected this may happen and there was a contingency for this possibility."
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