Lady Louise Windsor, Queen Elizabeth’s Youngest Granddaughter, Celebrates Her 21st Birthday

The college student checks all the boxes for a Windsor: She loves horses and drama, attends the University of St. Andrews, and reportedly wants to join the military

Lady Louise Windsor, the second youngest grandchild of the late Queen Elizabeth II, celebrated her 21st birthday on November 8, and the royal family feted it by sharing a photo of Louise in a carriage, whip in hand, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, to its social media channels.

Louise is following in the footsteps of her cousin, Prince William, as a student at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she is studying English literature. (As a first year, she lived in the same dorm where William first befriended Kate Middleton.) She is also involved with the school’s Army Cadets and is reportedly interested in pursuing a career in the military. Photos published earlier this year by the Daily Mail show her posing with her rumored boyfriend, Felix da Silva-Clamp, at a fundraiser for a university drama society.

As a competitive carriage driver, Louise, the daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, is taking after her late grandfather, Prince Philip. He taught Louise the basics of the sport he helped to invent, and he left her his ponies and a dark green four-wheeled carriage upon his death in April 2021. In September, she competed at the British National Carriage Driving Championships, and her team of horses was led by one named Balmoral Phantom.

Louise has one younger brother, James, Earl of Wessex, who is 16. In March, Edward praised his children during an appearance on gardening expert Alan Titsmarsh’s talk show, Love Your Weekend. He added that she picked up carriage driving of her own accord. “It was entirely off her own bat,” Edward said. Philip “took her out with the team, and I think it was only the second time, he was driving along and he said, ‘Do you want to have a go?’ And she didn’t have time to even answer the question, he just handed the reins across.”

Before starting her university studies in 2022, Louise worked at a garden center, where she made about $9 an hour. “The staff seemed to adore her,” one customer told The Sun. “It’s not every day you buy your begonias off a royal.”