The Duke of Cambridge is visiting the Middle East this week. An article in The Times on June 23 urged him to “get a tattoo of the Jerusalem cross on his arm, as did previous princes on visits to the Holy Land”. The first of them was Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales; his son, later George V, followed. Alistair Lexden supplied details in a letter published in the paper on June 25.
Sir, The future Edward VII was not given to flaunting the tattoo he acquired in Jerusalem in 1862 (“William can mark history with royal tattoo”, June 23). He seems to have concealed it from his wife. Twenty years later their son, later George V, wrote excitedly to tell his mother that he had been tattooed “by the same old man that tattooed Papa, and the same thing too, the five crosses”. He added: “Ask Papa to show you his arm.”
Lord Lexden
London SW1