Man who went to school with King Charles kept clippings of his hair for 50 years

The new king, who gave his first address as head of state on 9 September, was at the school as an exchange student for two terms.

Richard says he visited a barber’s straight after the then-Prince and scooped up some of the hair to keep as a memento. 

He told Nine News: “The then Prince Charles was waiting to get his hair cut and I was waiting for his to be completed.

“I noticed his hair drop onto the floor. It was all his because he was the first one to have his haircut.”

Richard said he got a ‘handful’ of the hair and has kept it in an envelope ever since. 

“I must say it's a different colour than the hair we see today,” he added.

Richard said Charles had been a prefect at the school and once caught him smoking but didn’t snitch to a teacher. 

He went on: “It was a dark room on the side of our living quarters and I was having a Marlboro and he happened to pop into the boiler room.

“I don't know whether he called me Kumnick or not but he said, ‘I will have those thank you’.

“I was pleased that that was as far as it went, because if it had gone any further I would have ended up in Mr Hanley's office.”

Asked whether he reckoned Charles would make a good monarch, Richard said: “Oh, I think he will be in the same vein as his mother.

“He would be perfect. I'm a royalist big time. I didn't think the time would come. I thought, maybe Charles would be too old.”

Charles gave his first public address as head of state on 9 September, during which he paid tribute to his late mother and thanked the public for their messages of condolence and support. 

Closing his first official address, Charles spoke directly to the Queen, saying: "And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you.

"Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years.

"May ‘flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest’."