A former classmate of King Charles III has admitted to keeping hair from the monarch in an envelope for more than 50 years.
Richard Kumnick, who attended Geelong Grammar School with Charles, stated that he had stolen hair from a Mansfield barbershop.
Even though the hair had “faded” a bit after 50 years, Richard was certain that it belonged to Charles because he was the first person that day to have his hair cut.
During his two semesters at Timbertop, he was a “prefect,” and his classmates were told to nickname him “Prince Charles,” he added.
Prince Charles is depicted on a guided tour of Timbertop, the remote outpost campus of Geelong Grammar School, during his February 1966 stay at the institution in Melbourne, Australia.
Mr. Kumnick asked Georgie Gardner and Tom Steinfort of Channel Nine if they would like to see the Royal locks.
Richard remarked jokingly as he plucked lengthy strands of dark hair from an envelope, “It’s a different color than the hair we see nowadays.”
The DNA of the King is now being stored at Geelong. Who would have known? ,’ Steinfort stated.
Mr. Kumnick stated that he was 15 years old and the Prince was 17 years old when they both attended the elite school in remote Victoria more than fifty years ago.
He would accompany us on our hikes. We ate with him. And he would come in and out of the three units he was the prefect for to check on us, to see if we were doing our homework or whatever,’ he explained.
A man who attended school with King Charles at Timbertop in Australia confessed to keeping tresses of the monarch’s hair (shown) in an envelope for more than 50 years.
1966 photograph of Prince Charles observing a woodwork demonstration at Geelong Grammar School’s outlying satellite campus Timbertop.
Charles has an extensive history with Australia, having traveled there 16 times and attended school in Victoria (pictured here with his wife Diana in Alice Springs, 1983)
During his first supper with the students, he recalls Charles looking “homesick.”
“Well, I know that he has pondered on it in later years, stating that he truly enjoyed it. I believe he stayed longer than what was eventually meant or what was first intended, he added.
Mr. Kumnick described the scary moment when the Prince discovered him smoking in the boiler room, which was prohibited at the strict boarding school.
“I was smoking a Marlboro in a dark area adjacent to our living quarters when he happened to enter the boiler room,” he explained.
I’m not sure if he called me Kumnick, but he did say, “Thank you, I’ll take those.”
If the situation had progressed any further, I would have ended up in Mr. Hanley’s office, so I was relieved that it stopped there.
Mr. Kumnick was asked if he believed his friend would make a suitable king.
Oh, I believe that kid will be as vain as his mother. He would be flawless. I’m a staunch royalist. He responded, “I didn’t think the time would come.”
I speculated that his son would… Charles would be too old, you know. I’m really happy. I’m terribly saddened by the passing of the Queen, yet this is a wonderful occasion.
It follows King Charles’ first address to the nation, in which he paid respect to Queen Elizabeth and praised his “dear wife Camilla” for her support.
In March 1983, Diana and Prince Charles attended an official welcoming ceremony in Alice Springs, Australia.
The next monarch, fighting back tears, praised Her Majesty as a “inspiration and a model for me and my entire family” as he expressed his “deep sadness” at her death on September 8 at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
The future King Charles III has a long and historic history with Australia, having visited the country sixteen times and attended school in regional Victoria for two semesters.
In 1983, Charles accompanied his then-wife Princess Diana and 10-month-old William on a visit that drew enormous crowds and media attention.
He represented the Queen at state funerals, snatched a kiss from an Australian model, and even swam at Bondi Beach.
In recent years, however, he has been important to the argument for Australia to become a republic, with a May study revealing that 53 percent of Australians oppose his being king.
The pictured King Charles has represented the Queen at state funerals, stolen a kiss from an Australian model, and even swam in Bondi Beach.
In 1994, a 23-year-old man was arrested for firing a starter pistol at Charles in Sydney as he was about to hand out Australia Day prizes.
David Kang barged onto the stage and fired two blank bullets at Charles.
The episode was something of a turning point for Charles in Australia, as his visits thereafter diminished.
Following the death of the Queen, the Australian Republic Movement quickly renewed its appeals for the time to secede from the crown.
It only took 24 minutes for the ARM to issue a statement, with the movement’s chair, renowned novelist and commentator Peter FitzSimons, praising her “major contribution” to Australia throughout her 70-year reign.
On April 15, 1981, Prince Charles has a swim at Bondi Beach during his tour of Australia.
The Australian Royal Military claimed that the Queen supported the right of Australians to become “a completely independent nation” in the 1998 republican referendum.
Mr. FitzSimons stated in a statement delivered 19 minutes before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s that Queen Elizabeth appreciated the self-determination of the Australian people.
‘During her tenure, the Australia Act of 1986 was enacted, removing the majority of the remaining avenues for British influence in Australian government. The elimination of appeals from Australian courts to British courts.
Republicans believe that the passing of the Queen will revive the fight for Australia’s constitutional independence, whereas monarchists insist they have “absolutely no hope.”
16 VISITS BY KING CHARLES TO AUSTRALIA
BY AAP
Prince Charles first visited Australia as a youngster in 1966. He spent two terms at Timbertop, the rural campus of Victoria’s Geelong Grammar School, and “liked it all.”
The young prince represented the Queen during the memorial service for Prime Minister Harold Holt, who vanished while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, in 1967. It was Australia’s largest ever gathering of world leaders.
Prince Charles, along with the Queen, Prince Philip, and Princess Anne, came to Australia in 1970 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing. Andrew, age 10, and Edward, age 6, missed the trip to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney because they stayed at home in England.
Prince Charles visited Bondi Beach and Geelong Grammar in 1974 when in Australia to open the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring in rural New South Wales with then-prime minister Gough Whitlam.
He returned to Australia in 1977 as patron of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Appeal for Young Australians and had an interview with an exceedingly anxious Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum on ABC’s Countdown.
Prince Charles represented the Queen during the official funeral for Sir Robert Menzies, Australia’s longest-serving prime leader, in Melbourne in 1978.
In 1979, on one of his most memorable visits as a young bachelor, model Jane Priest startled Prince Charles in the waves at Cottesloe Beach in Perth and stole a short kiss.
The heir presumptive to the British throne was newly engaged to Lady Diana Spencer when he came in 1981 to inaugurate the 50th Anniversary Convention of Apex Clubs of Australia.
Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and their 10-month-old son Prince William landed at Alice Springs in March 1983 to begin a six-week tour of Australia and New Zealand that drew tremendous crowds and media attention.
Prince and Princess of Wales visited Victoria in 1985 to commemorate the state’s 150th anniversary, where Diana wowed everyone from hospital wards to a charity rock concert with Molly Meldrum to Flemington for the Melbourne Cup.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana made their final trip to Australia as a couple in 1988, as part of the time’s bicentennial festivities.
A 23-year-old man was detained in Sydney, Australia, in 1994 for firing a starting pistol at Prince Charles as he prepared to present Australia Day prizes.
This tour, which included stops in Perth, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and Geelong Grammar, took visit in 2005, just prior to Prince Charles’ wedding to his longtime girlfriend Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 with a six-day trip of Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall celebrated his 67th birthday in 2015 by touring Adelaide, Tanunda, Canberra, Sydney, Albany, and Perth.
2018: This tour with Camilla involved opening the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, visits to Brisbane, Cairns and the Northern Territory, and side-trips in support of efforts to help the endangered loggerhead turtles and the Great Barrier Reef.
