The heir to the throne is 65 on Thursday – and hasn’t started his ‘real’ job yet

The Prince of Wales turns 65 on Thursday but he won’t be queueing for his pension or trying out his new bus pass.

Instead Charles and Camilla will be on a royal visit to India. No formal party is planned, but palace insiders say: “There’s likely to be some singing and maybe even a cake.”

However, the sources also insist the prince “doesn’t want any fuss”.

The following day, the couple will represent the Queen at the 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

It marks the first time Her Majesty has missed one of these meetings since 1973 a clear sign the 87-year-old monarch is cutting back on long-haul travel and allowing Charles to deputise.

But he’s unlikely to be able to take over the family business just yet. The Queen is keeping well and on her eldest son’s birthday will be visiting Manchester with the Duke of Edinburgh.

The 79-year-old King of Belgium and the 75-year-old Queen of the Netherlands abdicated this year, but the ‘A’ word is abhorrent to Elizabeth II who, when Queen Juliana threw in the towel in 1980, reportedly said “Typical Dutch.”

If she lives to her mother’s great age, Charles will be nearly 80 before he takes the throne.

Hs reign, like Edward VII’s after Queen Victoria died, will have been a lifetime coming.

1. He was born on November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace weighing 7lb 6oz.

2. “Transylvania is in my blood. The genealogy shows I’m descended from Vlad the Impaler, so I do have a bit of a stake in the country.”

3. He was christened Charles Philip Arthur George on December 15, 1948 in the Palace Music Room. One of his eight godparents was his grandfather King George VI

4. “For me she has always been one of those extraordinarily rare people whose touch can turn everything to gold.” Charles on his beloved granny, the Queen Mother.

5. He became Heir Apparent on February 6, 1952, aged 3 years and 12 weeks when his mother became Queen.

6. “I think it’s something that dawns on you with the most ghastly, inexorable sense. I didn’t suddenly wake up in my pram and say ‘Yippee’.” Charles when he realised he was heir.

7. He became the first heir to attend a day school when he started at Hill House School in West London on November 7, 1956.

8. “I didn’t enjoy school as much as I might have, but that was only because I’m happier at home than anywhere else.”

9. Charles was created 21st Prince of Wales at the age of nine on July 26, 1958.

10. “I remember being acutely embarrassed when it was announced.”

11. On May 1 1962 he enrolled at Gordonstoun School near Elgin, where he had an unhappy time and dubbed it ‘Colditz in kilts’.

12. “I could have gone to the local comprehensive, but I’m not sure it would have done me much good.”

13. In December 1967, aged 19, he represented the Queen for the first time overseas at the funeral of Australia’s Prime Minister Harold Holt.

14. “I learned the way a monkey learns by watching its parents.”

15. A worldwide TV audience of 500 million watched the Investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales at Carnarvon Castle, on July 1, 1969.

16. “During my investiture I waved so much that I woke up in the night waving my hand.”

17. The Queen gave him an Aston Martin for his 21st birthday. It now runs entirely on bio-fuel made from English wine.

18. “The future of the planet depends on the interest and involvement on projects that improve the environment.”

19. In July 1971 he became the first heir to make a parachute jump, landing in the English Channel, after catching his feet In the rigging lines when he left the aircraft.

20. “The first thing I thought was ‘They didn’t tell me anything about this.’ Then I had a lovely sail down.”

21. In 1976, Charles set up The Prince’s Trust to help young people, using his £7,400 severance pay for leaving the Navy.

22. “You have to choose someone very carefully and it has got to be someone pretty special.” Charles, aged 20, discusses marriage.

23. On February 6 1981 he became engaged to 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer. Their wedding in St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981 was billed the wedding of the century.

24. “I am delighted and frankly amazed Diana is prepared to take me on.”

25. Their eldest son, Prince William, was born on June 21, 1982 followed by Prince Harry on September 15, 1984.

26. “We happen to be a very close-knit family. I’m happier at home than anywhere else.”

27. In 1984 the prince appeared on the children’s TV programme Jackanory to read from his own book The Old Man of Lochnagar.

28. “Some TV programmes are marvellous, but there’s an awful lot of tripe.”

29. In June 1994 Charles admitted adultery. A year later Diana also admitted her affair with Captain James Hewitt.

30. Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby: “Were you faithful and honourable to your wife?’ Charles: “Yes, until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried”.

31. The couple were divorced on 28 August 1996 just a year before Diana’s holiday in Paris which resulted in her death at the age of 36.

32. “They are all going to blame me. The world’s going to go completely mad.” Charles on being told of Diana’s death.

33. Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles at the Guildhall in Windsor on April 9 2005, a day later than planned, as the prince was at the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

34. “I hope they found out just how special she is, just being jolly good and down to earth.” Charles after returning with an overseas tour with Camilla.

35. Charles’ interests include architecture, inner-city regeneration, organic farming, gardening, watercolour painting, alternative medicine and holistic healing, Islam and the Middle East and education.

36. “What is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.” Charles criticises a proposed exhibition to the National Gallery.

37. In 1992 Charles set up Duchy Originals, marketing his organic produce with the help of leading supermarkets. The brand now encompasses 230 products sold in 30 countries. Annual profits are £2.8 million and it has raised £11 million for charitable causes.

38. “When I launched the first product oaten biscuits there were headlines in the tabloid press saying ‘A shop-soiled Royal’.”

39. Charles was a regular polo player from a teenager until he retired from the sport in 2005. Occasional falls led to him developing a bad back and he takes a cushion with him on car journeys to ease the pain.

40. “I love the game, I love the ponies, I love the exercise.”

41. Besides being Prince of Wales, Charles is also Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

42. “She hated leaving, much as I hate leaving this marvellous place.” Charles sharing Queen Victoria’s love of the Highlands.

43. He is patron or president of more than 400 organisations from Age UK to the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

44. “I sometimes wonder if two thirds of the globe is covered in red carpet.”

45. He gets his shirts from Turnbull & Asser who also make his made to measure suits that cost around £2,600

46. “I’m often asked whether it’s some generic trait that I stand with my hands behind my back, like my father. The answer is that we have the same tailor who makes the sleeves so tight we can’t get our hands in front!”

47. In July 2013 the frugal prince wore the same grey double-breasted suit on seven occasions. It was easy to spot it had a three-inch patch to cover a hole under his left hip pocket.

48. “Clothes have to combine style with sustainability and I find British-made tailoring more than meets that challenge.”

49. He likes his suits to be double-breasted and have a ticket pocket (a small pocket just above the normal outside pockets).

50. “If you were to ask me what makes a good shirt or a good suit, not only does it make as good a figure as possible, it also helps you ‘feel right’.”

51. At state banquets, Charles has a small pot of olive oil next to his plate instead of butter.

52. “Over the past 30 years I’ve been venturing into extremely dangerous territory by speaking about the future of food. I have the scars to prove it!”

53. His favourite tipple is malt whisky. He even blended his own whisky, Barrowgill.

54. “Is this the emergency supply?” The Prince spots a pyramind of barrels at Glengrant Distillery.

55. Charles loves handmade leather shoes. Several pairs are older than his sons and one pair, made by Lobb of St James’s, date from 1968.

56. “Some French speakers use a rather striking phrase when talking about shoes. “a fait un bon pied.” It makes a good foot, they say.”

57. Charles enjoys afternoon tea of boiled eggs and muffins but refutes the story that seven eggs are boiled at different times to get the ideal one.

58. “Sometimes, particularly trivial stories about me appear. I suppose I must accept that can be newsworthy, regardless of context.”

59. The prince has owned many dogs. His favourite was a Jack Russell called Tigga who died in March 2002 at the age of 18. Charles was devastated when Tigga’s daughter Pooh mysteriously disappeared on the Balmoral estate in 1994.

60. “We’re a family of humans, not a set of symbols, and I think everyone would want us to be real.”

61. Every August the Prince stays at his grandmother’s Castle of Mey in Caithnesshire.

62. “ I am fortunate enough to be able to stay in the only home my dearly beloved grandmother ever owned. I’ve fallen in love with it and the local area,”

63. Charles and Camilla spend many weekends at Highgrove House near Tetbury. There are two signs in the car park: BEWARE: ‘You are now entering an old fashioned establishment’ and ‘This is a GMO-free zone a reference to genetically modified organisms.

64. “If being old-fashioned means fostering a good family atmosphere, then I’m proud to be old-fashioned!”

65. In September Charles beat William IV’s record of 64 years and 10 months to become the oldest person who will succeed to the British throne.