For a few years now, the British tabloids have been trying to make “Lady Louise Windsor should be a working royal” happen. It started around her 18th birthday. She just turned 21 years old last week, and she’s still a university student at St. Andrews in Scotland. Her birthday was the reason behind this somewhat exhaustive piece in the Telegraph, a sort of “what’s going on with Louise on this very significant birthday?” Basically, she’s a normal college student, she has a redheaded boyfriend and she’s still doing her horse stuff. Some highlights:

She’s dating St. Andrews student Felix da Silva-Clamp. Louise began reading English literature at St Andrews in 2022. In doing so, she has followed in the educational footsteps of her cousin Prince William, a geography student, and his wife, Catherine, who read history of art. It seems as though history is repeating itself in another way too: Lady Louise has similarly been juggling her studies with a flourishing relationship. The object of her affection is Felix da Silva-Clamp, 20, who looks to share Prince Harry’s red hair and cheeky charm. Silva-Camp has a part-time job in a local ice cream parlour, a down-to-earth quality that clearly chimes with Lady Louise, who spent her summer in 2022 working at a Surrey garden centre, where she helped customers, rung up items on the tills, and tended to the plants, all for £6.63 an hour.

Normal student life: An acquaintance of Lady Louise, who also attends St Andrews, says that her royal pal’s university experience has been surprisingly normal. “She works a student job during the week, in the canteen, and she takes part in a lot of student theatre productions – she was in the chorus for a play called Dragon Fever, she was really good. The theatre isn’t massive, so it shows quite a lot of dedication that she’s part of it.” Also in the cast was da Silva-Clamp, playing “an impressionable and naïve young squire” – which won him the award for Best Scene Stealer.

Scottish dancing: Lady Louise is very fond of reeling, says her fellow student: “She finds Scottish dancing really fun. The reeling balls are lovely – everyone always wants to be her partner because she’s a really good dancer. She does a lot with the cadet force as well.” Lady Louise is dedicated to her course, they add, and keen to be considered a regular member of the student community. “She’s really grounded, whenever I see her she’s wearing understated clothes – you literally wouldn’t know at all that she’s a member of the royal family.”

She loves the isolation of St. Andrews: St Andrews suits Lady Louise perfectly, as it has countless other royal students (including Princess Margaret’s grandson Sam Chatto), her friend explains, partly because of its remote location. It’s situated on the coast in the Fife region, which helps to protect her privacy. “You don’t have a train station, it’s only really accessible by bus, so you’re kept incredibly safe. The town is basically a student town. It’s a friendly place, easy to get involved.” Though St Andrews is considered to be rather less ferociously academic than Oxbridge, it still attracts serious students, her fellow student adds. “Louise did well at school and she really wanted to be stretched.”

Her boyfriend comes from a respected but non-royal family. Da Silva-Clamp, who Lady Louise’s friend confirms is her boyfriend, was born in London in 2004 to parents Jonathan Clamp (the da Silva seems to be a recent addition), a solicitor who stood for election in 2010 as a Conservative candidate, and Kendall, who has a master’s in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and is a member of the WHO mental health gap action programme. Their son was raised in Melbourne, Australia, where Kendall currently lives. Sources say that Lady Louise, who can study abroad as part of her degree, is now considering Macquarie University in Australia so that she can travel with da Silva-Clamp.

He’s been to Sandringham: Her devoted beau has even been to Sandringham. In June he was at the Norfolk estate to cheer on Lady Louise as she competed in the Sandringham Horse Driving Trials, winning a silver medal. His enthusiastic support is rather reminiscent of Kate cheering on Prince William at his polo matches. There he met her proud parents, and seems to get on well with both the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Lady Louise has previously spoken about how her beloved grandfather, the late Duke of Edinburgh, shared her love of carriage riding. “After a competition, he would always ask how it went. His eyes would light up.”

[From The Telegraph]

Despite the Telegraph’s incessant comparisons to William and Kate, it sounds more like Louise just has a sweet and lowkey college romance and that she’s a girl with simple tastes. Like, she likes everything private and she doesn’t want anyone to make a big fuss over anything. Is it scandalous that this guy is Australian? Is it scandalous that it sounds like his parents are divorced? Hm. There have been reports in recent months that Louise is interested in joining the military after St. Andrew’s too, and now they’re saying she might study abroad. Basically, Louise isn’t going to be a working royal. I doubt King Charles wants her to be a working royal either.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.