As heavy rain fell and the Prince of Wales tried and failed to open an umbrella, it was Prince George who led the way.
Quickly, confidently, he strode very slightly ahead of his parents across the schoolyard of Eton, ready for his first day.
Just like each 13-year-old new boy arriving at the boarding school for Michaelmas, he wore his own clothes and extended a polite handshake to the headmaster, who told him “welcome”, “good luck”, and “enjoy”.
For George alone, it was also a moment captured for the history books.
It is the third such stroll into a new school for the Prince, in front of a carefully managed, quiet, small handful of press.
As a 4-year-old starting at Thomas’, George clutched his father’s hand and tried to hide behind his arm. As a 9-year-old at Lambrook, he held his mother’s hand and shuffled a little nervously as he waited.
On the pathway at Eton, where boys study under the motto Floreat Etona!, he already looked ready to flourish.
“I’m ready,” he told Simon Henderson, the headmaster who formed a welcome party with Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the college’s provost.
Henderson offered advice in return. “You’re going to have an amazing time,” he said. “Start off trying everything and you’ll find your way.”
As a church bell pealed, there was inevitable small talk about the weather.
“Shame about the weather,” said the Princess of Wales, dressed in green with an umbrella of her own.
“Typical,” replied Coleridge, while William – perhaps mindful of the summer heatwave – shrugged, saying that “we’ve been waiting for rain for ages”.
George wore a dark blazer, shirt, tie and chinos with brown suede shoes for his arrival at the Berkshire boarding school.
In keeping with college tradition, he then changed into the school’s distinctive uniform. Kensington Palace issued three formal photographs of the prince, posing in the school yard with his hands clasped, then in his pockets, with a beaming smile.
He walked in under Lupton’s Tower, the 16th-century gatehouse clock tower, crossing the cobblestone school yard with his parents and pausing at a bronze statue of Henry VI, the school’s founder.
After a few moments of small talk, Henderson and Coleridge ushered the family into the school.
As they moved out of sight, the princess placed a supportive arm on her son’s back as she has done in public appearances throughout his childhood.
The family were shown into the fourth form passage in the original school building, which is believed to house the world’s oldest classroom.
Like other first-year pupils – known collectively at Eton as “F Block” – George will have his own bedroom. The Prince and Princess of Wales helped him settle in before leaving him at the same boarding house that his father once lived in.
It was, by coincidence, the fourth anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Pupils from other years will return to Eton College when the school starts on Wednesday.
George follows in the footsteps of his father. William arrived at Eton on September 6, 1995, when he was photographed with his parents and younger brother Prince Harry.
He went on to enjoy his time at the school, at which he was photographed wearing a Union flag waistcoat, cooking for himself, playing sports, and working at a desktop computer. He served as a house captain and prefect before leaving to study at St Andrews University.
Harry, in his memoir, described the school as William’s “sanctuary”.
In an interview for his 18th birthday, William said: “I’ve really enjoyed being able to go about Eton as just another student.”
Queen Elizabeth also experienced Eton in her own way, tutored as a teenager by Sir Henry Marten, the vice-provost, who delivered lessons on history and the constitution and was said to absent-mindedly address her as “gentlemen” on occasion.
Henry VI established the school in 1440, naming it Kynge’s College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore.
The college has a rigorous admission process that includes tests and an annual fee of £63,298 ($146,400).
Alumni include former prime ministers Lord Cameron and Boris Johnson, actors Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, and the authors George Orwell and Ian Fleming.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have asked that their son, in keeping with longstanding agreements, be afforded privacy throughout his education.
Signs have been posted around Windsor warning the public not to photograph the pupils when they are moving around the campus of school buildings between lessons.
George’s siblings Princess Charlotte, 11, and 8-year-old Prince Louis remain at Lambrook School, a private prep in Berkshire.
The family live at Forest Lodge in Windsor, near to both.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.