Harry, accompanied by his father, chatted with Army officials

The prince will become the most senior member of the royal family in recent memory to be trained at Sandhurst.

"I am really excited. I want to get on with it and do the best job I can do," he said in a statement.

The 20-year-old had to pass a four-day assessment, featuring fitness tasks and a military planning exercise, to win his place at the elite academy.

Prince Charles accompanied his son to Sandhurst, giving him a playful punch on the arm before leaving him to start his career.

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The Prince was one of 270 recruits joining the academy for the 44-week officer training course.

Out of the three companies at the academy, Harry is joining Alamein and will belong to one of its three platoons of 30 men.

There will be no women in Harry's section, with the 32 female cadets joining at the same time being trained in a separate platoon.

After enrolling and picking up the keys to his modest room, Harry emerged from the old college building wearing a new red name badge with just the word "Wales" printed in white capital letters.

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Senior officers are understood to be planning to call him Mr Wales or Officer Cadet Wales while his fellow soldiers will just use his surname.

The prince's entry into Sandhurst was delayed from earlier in the year to allow a knee injury to recover.

He had been due to enrol at the college in January but injured his knee while training with the army ahead of his test during the summer.

He aggravated the injury in October while coaching children for the Rugby Football Union.