A very Royal Marine: Queen's great-nephew's Arthur Chatto surprising career move

Arthur Chatto (centre), the Queen's great-nephew, is set to be the marines' latest officer recruit. Photo / Getty Images

Princess Margaret's grandson is about to tackle the brutal training programme, which Prince Edward famously abandoned after four months.

The Navy's warning to anyone flirting with the idea of signing up for the Royal Marines is very clear: "Most people wouldn't even contemplate putting their body under the strain that joining requires."

It's one of the longest and most arduous training programmes in the world, and no bones are made about the fact you need to be in "the best condition of your life" to have a hope of making it through. To most people it would sound, frankly, hideous, but the idea of being put through your paces for a gruelling 32 weeks clearly hasn't put off the Queen's great-nephew, Arthur Chatto, who informed Her Majesty last week that at the age of 22, he is set to be the marines' latest officer recruit, and the first Royal since her youngest son, Prince Edward, abandoned the training in 1986.

To be fair to Chatto, he looks to be in something pretty close to the "supreme condition" required to become an elite soldier already. The youngest son of Lady Sarah Chatto, Princess Margaret's daughter, he has made a name for himself primarily for his impressive (and extremely public) GI Joe physique. In recent years, a steady stream of extraordinarily buff photographs on a now-defunct Instagram account delighted newspapers almost as much as the hordes of Royal fans from around the world who followed his every move, squealing over snaps of him training (topless, naturally) in the Highlands or going for a wild swim. It was enough for Vanity Fair to declare him "the new Royal bachelor" and his friends to start referring to him as Mr Instagram.

Now, it seems, it wasn't all for show. In fact, Chatto appears to have been preparing to take on a big physical challenge for some time. Last summer, while studying at the University of Edinburgh, where he read geography, he embarked on a 2000-mile non-stop row around the UK. Since completing the dangerous 42-day expedition, he has spent the past year working as a personal trainer, getting a job with "inclusive" Edinburgh gym Bound Fitness. He specialises in "strength and endurance training with a military focus", hosting bootcamps on the Meadows, and online abs workouts throughout lockdown. You have to wonder how many of his Zoom clients were aware they were taking advice on how to tone their bingo wings and buttocks from the Queen's great-nephew.

Prince Edward In Royal Marines uniform at RAF Benson. Photo / Getty Images

Training hard is, says Chatto, about more than the physical benefits: it's "an essential cornerstone in improving my own mental health". He shares something in common, then, with his second cousin, Prince Harry, who once said of his own 10-year military career that it helped him to avoid making "bad choices". In 2015, Harry told The Sunday Times: "I dread to think where I'd be without the army." Both were cadets at Eton and Harry was, for a time, Captain General of the Royal Marines, so should be a good source of advice for his young cousin – even though he was recently stripped of the honorary title after stepping away from Royal duty.

Another member of the family who may be able to offer his support is Prince Edward, who did embark on the training. The Sun reports the Earl of Wessex has been "very supportive" of young Chatto's decision to sign up, presumably dialling down his own memories of the gruelling programme, which he abandoned a third of the way through. Incidentally, stories differ on the Duke of Edinburgh's reaction to the news his youngest son had quit the Marines: some say he was furious, others that he was secretly proud of Edward's gumption.

It's possible Chatto may have been economical with his own parents about the realities of his upcoming training. He told The Telegraph last year ahead of his endurance row: "With my mum, I think it's always best not to tell her the full details and then she can't get too worried". Perhaps she would be wise to be concerned – given that his childhood was split between a townhouse in Kensington and a Georgian farmhouse in West Sussex, it's hard to imagine he has much natural affinity for being "cold, wet [and] tired" all the time. Then again, he is said to have been "going off into the wilds at Balmoral" and camping with his kit as he prepares for officer training. Essential groundwork, given you are expected to turn up to training match fit and ready to "push your body to the limit".

It's a shame his great-uncle, Prince Philip, didn't live to see him take on the challenge. The Prince's final Royal engagement in 2017 was a Royal Marines event, where he joked with officers who had recently completed 100km runs in full kit and various punishing underwater challenges: "You all should be locked up." You would imagine, then, that he would have approved thoroughly of the force's latest Windsor recruit. All that remains to be seen is whether Chatto can stick at it longer than the last one.