Senior coach Ross Lyon addresses the St Kilda Football Club players in the Australian Football League prior to the 2009 AFL Grand Final

In sports, a coach is a person involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople. Also a sport teacher.

Staff[link]

A coach, particularly in a major operation, is traditionally supported by one or more assistant coaches. The staff may include coordinators, strength and fitness specialists, and trainers.

Coaching in association football[link]

In football, the duties of a coach can vary depending on the level they are coaching at and the country they are coaching in, amongst others. In youth football, the primary objective of a coach is to aid players in the development of their technical skills, with emphasis on the enjoyment and fair play of the game rather than physical or tactical development.^[1] In recent decades, efforts have been made by governing bodies in various countries to overhaul their coaching structures at youth level with the aim of encouraging coaches to put player development and enjoyment ahead of winning matches.

In professional football, the role of the coach or trainer is limited to the training and development of a club's "first team" in most countries. The coach is aided by a number of assistant coaches, one of which carries the responsibility for the training and preparation of the goalkeepers. The coach is also assisted by medical staff and athletic preparators.

The medium to long term strategy of a football club, with regard to transfer policies, youth development and other sporting matters, is not the business of a coach in most footballing countries. The presence of a sporting director is designed to give the medium term development of a club the full attention of one professional, allowing the coach to focus on improving and producing performances from the players under their charge.^[2] The system also provides a certain level of protection against overspending on players in search of instant success. In British football, the director of a professional football team is more commonly awarded the position of manager, a role that combines the duties of coach and sporting director.

The responsibilities of a European football manager tend to be divided up in North American professional sports, where the teams usually have a separate general manager and head coach, although occasionally a person may fill both roles of general manager and head coach. While the first team coach in football is usually an assistant to the manager who actually holds the real power, the American style general manager and head coach have clearly distinct areas of responsibilities. For example, a typical European football manager would have the final say on player lineups and contract negotiations, while in American sports these duties would be handled separately by the head coach and general manager, respectively. Also sports can be changed due to a coach deciding on the game.

Coaching in baseball[link]

Baseball, at least at the professional level in North America, is unique in that the individual who heads the coaching staff does not use the title of "head coach", but is instead called the field manager. Baseball "coaches" at that level are members of the coaching staff under the overall supervision of the manager, with each coach having a specialized role. The baseball field manager is essentially equivalent to head coaches in other American professional sports leagues; player transactions are handled by the general manager. The term "manager" used without qualification almost always refers to the field manager, while the general manager is often called the GM.

At amateur levels, the terminology is more similar to that of other sports. The person known as the "manager" in professional leagues is generally called the "head coach" in amateur leagues; this terminology is standard in U.S. college baseball.

Coaching in the United States[link]

All major U.S. collegiate sports have associations for their coaches to engage in professional development activities, but professional coaches tend to have less formal associations, and have never developed into a group resembling a union in the way that athletic players in many leagues have.

Many coaching contracts allow the termination of the coach with little notice and without specific cause, usually in the case of high-profile coaches with the payment of a financial settlement. U.S. collegiate coaching contracts require termination without the payment of a settlement if the coach is found to be in serious violation of named rules, usually with regard to the recruiting or retention of players in violation of amateur status.

Coaching is a very fickle profession, and a reversal of the team's fortune often finds last year's "Coach of the Year" to be seeking employment in the next.

Many coaches are former players of the sport themselves, and coaches of professional sports teams are sometimes retired players.

On some teams, the principal coach (usually referred to as the head coach) has little to do with the development of details such as techniques of play or placement of players on the playing surface, leaving this to assistants while concentrating on larger issues such as recruitment and organizational development.

Successful coaches often become as well or even better-known than the athletes they coach, and in recent years have come to command high salaries and have agents of their own to negotiate their contracts with the teams. Often the head coach of a well-known team has his or her own radio and television programs and becomes the primary "face" associated with the team.

Preparation for coaching[link]

Coaching courses and training seminars are increasingly available. One important role of coaches, especially youth coaches, is establishing safety for school-age athletes. This requires knowledge of CPR, prevention of dehydration, and following current concussion management guidelines.^[3][4]

See also[link]

References[link]

Look up coach in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Coach may refer to:

Transportation[link]

• Coach (bus), an automotive vehicle for long-distance travel
  • Coach (scheduled transport), the mode of transport using such vehicles
  • Coach USA, an American bus transport company
  • Coach Canada, a Canadian bus transport company
• Coach (carriage), a horse-drawn vehicle
• Coach (rail), a type of passenger car
• Coach class, a category of transport seating
• Hearse, a vehicle for carrying the deceased

Guidance/instruction[link]

• Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
• Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities

Media and entertainment[link]

• Coach (TV series)
• Coach (comics)
• The Coach, a wrestling personality
• Coach Ernie Pantusso, a Cheers character
• Benjamin "Coach" Wade, a Survivor contestant
• Coach, a film starring Cathy Lee Crosby
• Coach, a Left 4 Dead 2 character

Other uses[link]

• Coach, Inc., a leather goods company known for its handbags

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to nurture physical fitness and social interaction skills.

Sport (or, in the United States, sports) is all forms of competitive physical activity which,^[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants.^[2] Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.

Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,^[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.^[2] However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports,^[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.^[1]

Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can by determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.

In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sports broadcasting.

Meaning and usage[link]

Etymology[link]

Look up sport in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining".^[6]

The French word for sport is based on the Persian word bord, meaning "winning" or "win".^{[citation needed]} The Chinese term for sport, tiyu (体育; 體育) connotes physical training. The modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms "athlete" and "athleticism".

Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.^[7] Roget's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.^[8]

Nomenclature[link]

The singular term 'sport' is used in most English dialects to decribe the overall concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with 'sports' used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in England"). American English uses 'sports' for both terms.

Definition[link]

Show Jumping, an equestrian sport

The precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources, with no universally agreed definition. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football, american football, cycling, equestrian sports, baseball and more), and is therefore the de facto representative of international sport.

SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:^[1]

• have an element of competition
• be in no way harmful to any living creature
• not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
• not rely on any 'luck' element specifically designed in to the sport

They also recognise that sport can be primarily physical (such as rugby or athletics), primarily mind (such as chess or go), predominantly motorised (such as Formula 1 or powerboating), primarily co-ordination (such as billiard sports) or primarily animal supported (such as equestrian sport).^[1]

There has been an increase in the application of the term 'sport' to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as electronic sports, especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations.

Competition[link]

There are opposing views on the necessity of competition as a defining element of a sport, with almost all professional sport involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the IOC or SportAccord.^[1]

Other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, including those completed just for fun.

In order to widen participation, and reduce the impact of losing on less able participants, there has been an introduction of non-competitive physical activity to traditionally competitive events such as school sports days, although moves like this are often controversial.^[9][10]

History[link]

Roman bronze reduction of Myron's Discobolos, 2nd century AD.

There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC.^[11] Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.^[12] Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional Iranian martial art of Zourkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills.^[13] Among other sports that originate in ancient Persia are polo and jousting.

Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age

A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.^[14]

Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet—all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports.

Fair play[link]

Sportsmanship[link]

Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.^[15][16][17]

Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game", and the modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing... is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.

Cheating[link]

Key tenets of sport include that the result should not be predetermined, and that both sides should have equal opportunity to win. Rules are in place to ensure that fair play to occur, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.

Participants may choose to cheat in order to satisfy their desire to win, or in order to achieve an ulterior motive. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports fixtures creates the motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome.

Doping and drugs[link]

The competitive nature of sport encourages some participants to attempt to enhance their performance through the use of medicines, or through other means such as increasing the volume of blood in their bodies through artificial means.

All sports recognised by the IOC or SportAccord are required to implement a testing programme, looking for a list of banned drugs, with suspensions or bans being placed on participants who test positive for banned substances.

Violence[link]

Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration. Rioting or hooliganism are common and ongoing problems at national and international sporting contests.

Participation[link]

Gender participation[link]

This section requires expansion.

Female participation continues to rise alongside the opportunity for involvement and the value of sports for child development and physical fitness. Despite gains during the last three decades, a gap persists in the enrollment figures between male and female players. Female players account for 39% of the total participation in US interscholastic athletics. Gender balance has been accelerating from a 32% increase in 1973–74 to a 63% increase in 1994–95. Hessel (2000)^{[Full citation needed]}.

Youth participation[link]

This section requires expansion.

Youth sports present children with opportunities for fun, socialization, forming peer relationships, physical fitness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sports as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sports is death or serious injury including concussion, with the highest risk coming from running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics.^[18]

Spectator involvement[link]

Spectators at the 1906 unofficial Olympic Games

The competition element of sport, along with the aesthetic appeal of some sports, result in the popularity of people attending to watch sport being played. This has led to the specific phenomenon of spectator sport.

Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast mediums including radio, television and internet broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometimes substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television broadcast.

It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion worldwide viewers.^{[citation needed]}

In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year.^{[citation needed]} Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.^{[citation needed]}

Issues and considerations[link]

Amateur and professional[link]

Modern sports have complex rules and are highly organized.

Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether particpants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary).

The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led to sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are rewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run in to millions of dollars.^[19]

Some sports, or individual competitions within a sport, retain a policy of allowing only amateur sport. The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur competition with those who practiced a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby.^[20], but following the 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes elgible for the Olympics, with only boxing and wrestling still competed on an "amateur" basis, although this revolves around rules, and not payment.

Grassroots sport is a popular phrase which covers the amateur participation in sport at lower levels, normally without pretension towards higher achievement, and is in line with the "sport for all" mentality, where enjoyment is the primary reason for participation.^[21][2]

Technology[link]

Technology plays an important part in modern sport, with it being a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), and used in others to improve performance.

Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to fine tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear.

In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules designed to control the impact of technical advantage between participants.

Politics[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Sports and politics can influence each other greatly.

When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.^[22]

The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda.

In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported football, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of football and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but was modified to allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped into Aviva Stadium. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban.

Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue, as in the Football War. These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sports being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.

A very famous case when sports and politics colided was the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Masked men entered the hotel of the Israeli olympic team and killed many of their men. This was known as the Munich massacre.

See also[link]

Sports and games portal

Find more about Sports on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
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	Quotations from Wikiquote
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• Outline of sports
• List of sportspeople
• List of sports attendance figures
• List of professional sports leagues

Related topics

References[link]

• European Commission (2007), The White Paper on Sport.
• Council of Europe (2001), The Europien sport charter.

Further reading[link]

• The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandel (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1).
• Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

Catherine
Duchess of Cambridge (more)
Catherine at Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa, 2011
Spouse	Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (m. 2011)
Full name
Catherine Elizabeth[fn 1]
House	House of Windsor
Father	Michael Middleton
Mother	Carole Middleton (née Goldsmith)
Born	(1982-01-09) 9 January 1982 (age 30) Reading, Berkshire, England
Religion	Anglican (Church of England)

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Catherine Elizabeth "Kate"; née Middleton; born 9 January 1982)^[1] is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and member of the British Royal Family. The Duke of Cambridge is second in line to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realms and, should he eventually become King, she would automatically become his queen consort.^[2]

Catherine grew up in Chapel Row at Bucklebury, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, England.^[3] She studied in Scotland at the University of St Andrews, where she met the then Prince William of Wales in 2001. Their engagement was announced on 16 November 2010, and Middleton attended many high-profile royal events before they married on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Catherine has created a major impact upon British fashion which has been termed as the "Kate effect", and in 2012, she was selected as one of The 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine.^[4][5]

Biography[link]

The Royal Family of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms
HM The Queen HRH The Duke of Edinburgh HRH The Prince of Wales HRH The Duchess of Cornwall HRH The Duke of Cambridge HRH The Duchess of Cambridge HRH Prince Harry of Wales HRH The Duke of York HRH Princess Beatrice of York HRH Princess Eugenie of York HRH The Earl of Wessex HRH The Countess of Wessex Viscount Severn Lady Louise Windsor HRH The Princess Royal HRH The Duke of Gloucester HRH The Duchess of Gloucester HRH The Duke of Kent HRH The Duchess of Kent HRH Prince Michael of Kent HRH Princess Michael of Kent HRH Princess Alexandra Sarah, Duchess of York
v t e

Early life and family[link]

Middleton was born at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on 9 January 1982 and christened at St Andrew's Bradfield, Berkshire on 20 June 1982.^[6][7]:32 She is the eldest of three children born to Carole (née Goldsmith), a former flight attendant and now part-owner of Party Pieces, a private company with an estimated worth of £30 million,^[8] and Michael Middleton, who also worked as a flight attendant prior to becoming a flight dispatcher for British Airways, currently also an owner of Party Pieces. Her parents married on 21 June 1980, at the Parish Church of Dorney, Buckinghamshire,^[9] and in 1987, founded Party Pieces, a mail order company that sells party supplies and decorations.^[10][11] Middleton has a younger sister, Pippa^{[12][better source needed]} and a younger brother, James Middleton.^[12][13] The family has complained about press harassment of Pippa and Carole since Middleton's engagement.^[14]

Middleton's paternal ancestors were from Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. Her paternal great-grandmother Olivia was a member of the Lupton family, who were active for generations in Leeds in commercial and municipal work.^[15] Her ancestors include the Revd Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer.^[16]

Carole Middleton's maternal family, the Harrisons, were working class labourers and miners from Sunderland and County Durham.^[17]

Middleton's parents worked for British Airways in Amman, Jordan from May 1984 to September 1986. In Jordan, Middleton went to an English language nursery school^[18] before returning to their home in Berkshire.^[19] After her return from Amman, Middleton was enrolled at St Andrew's School near the village of Pangbourne in Berkshire, then briefly at Downe House.^[20] She attended Marlborough College, a co-educational independent boarding school in Wiltshire,^[21] and graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland with an undergraduate MA (2:1 Hons) in the History of Art. While a student at St. Andrews, she met Prince William.^[22]

Career[link]

In November 2006, Middleton accepted a position as an accessory buyer with the clothing chain Jigsaw.^[23] She also worked part-time until January 2011 as a catalogue photographer, webpage designer and marketing officer for her parents' firm "Party Pieces". Despite this, at one point she was given the nickname 'Waity Katie' by the media for her apparent lack of work ethic and seeming desire not to do anything except to wait for a wedding proposal. ^[24]

In 2008, it was reported that she had quit her job at Jigsaw to become a professional photographer, intending to take private classes with photographer Mario Testino, who had taken several well-known photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons.^[25] Testino later denied that Middleton was going to be working for him.^[26]

Public image and style[link]

Catherine is admired for her fashion sense and has been placed on numerous "best dressed" lists.^[27][28] She was selected by The Daily Telegraph as the "Most Promising Newcomer" in its 2006 list of style winners and losers.^[29] Tatler placed her at number 8 on its yearly listing of the top ten style icons in 2007.^[30] She was featured in People magazine's 2007 and 2010 best-dressed lists.^[31] Middleton was named as one of Richard Blackwell's ten "Fabulous Fashion Independents" of 2007.^[32] In June 2008, Style.com selected Middleton as its monthly beauty icon.^[33] In July 2008, Middleton was included in Vanity Fair's international best-dressed list.^[34] In February 2011, she was named the Top Fashion Buzzword of the 2011 season by the Global Language Monitor.^[35]

The Duchess is known for mixing couture pieces, often by British designers, with 'High Street' retail fashion. Designers worn by the Duchess include Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, Issa, Jenny Packham, Beulah London, Alice Temperley, Erdem and Catherine Walker; high street labels worn by the Duchess include Reiss, Zara and L.K.Bennett. In January 2012, she was voted 'Headwear Person of the Year'.^[36]

Relationship with Prince William[link]

Middleton's status as the undeclared girlfriend of Prince William brought her widespread media coverage in Britain and abroad and she was often photographed on her daily outings. On 17 October 2005, she complained through her lawyer about harassment from the media, stating that she had done nothing significant to warrant such publicity.^[37] In February 2006, it was announced that Middleton would receive her own 24-hour security detail supplied by the Royalty Protection branch (SO14). This fuelled further speculation that she and Prince William would soon be engaged, since she would not otherwise be entitled to this service.

Middleton with Prince Harry, June 2008

No engagement was forthcoming and Middleton was not granted an allowance to fund this security. Media attention increased around the time of her 25th birthday in January 2007, prompting warnings from both The Prince of Wales and Prince William and from Middleton's lawyers, who threatened legal action. Two newspaper groups, News International, which publishes The Times and The Sun, and the Guardian Media Group, publishers of The Guardian, decided to refrain from publishing paparazzi photographs of her.^[38] Middleton attended at least one event as an official royal guest, Prince William's Passing Out Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 15 December 2006.^[39]

On 17 May 2008, Middleton attended the wedding of Prince William's cousin Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly, which the prince did not attend.^[40] On 19 July 2008, she was a guest at the wedding of Lady Rose Windsor and George Gilman. Prince William was away on military operations in the Caribbean, serving aboard the HMS Iron Duke.^[41] In 2010, Middleton pursued an invasion of privacy claim against two agencies and photographer Niraj Tanna, who took pictures of her over Christmas 2009.^[42] She obtained a public apology, £5,000 in damages, and legal costs.^[43]

Breakup and reconciliation[link]

On 14 April 2007, The Sun newspaper broke a "world exclusive" suggesting that Prince William and Middleton had split up.^[44] Other media outlets, such as the BBC, confirmed the story as the day progressed. The couple decided to break up during a holiday in the Swiss resort of Zermatt.^[45][46] Clarence House made only one comment about the relationship's end, according to The Times, stating, "We don't comment on Prince William's private life".^[47] Newspapers speculated about the reasons for the split, although these reports relied on anonymous sources.

The original report in The Sun quoted a "close friend of the couple" as saying that Middleton felt Prince William had not been paying her enough attention. The paper highlighted reports that Prince William had been spending time with other young women and said the Prince, aged 24 at the time of the split, felt he was too young to marry.^[48] A report in the Daily Mail blamed a desire by royal courtiers not to "hurry along" a marriage announcement, and Prince William's desire to enjoy his bachelor status within his Army career. The Mail also suggested that a friend of Prince William encouraged the Prince to take a "careless approach" to relationships. The same article suggested that Middleton had "expected too much" in wanting Prince William to demonstrate his commitment to her.^[49]

In June 2007, Middleton and Prince William insisted they were "just good friends" following reports of a reconciliation.^[50] Middleton and her family attended the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium, where she and Prince William sat two rows apart.^[51] The couple were subsequently seen together in public on a number of occasions and several news sources, including the BBC and the Daily Mail, stated that they had "rekindled their relationship".^[52] She also joined Prince William and The Prince of Wales on a deerstalking expedition at Balmoral^[53] and attended the wedding of Prince William's cousin, Peter Phillips, even though Prince William, due to a prior commitment, did not. In April 2008, Middleton accompanied Prince William when he was awarded his RAF wings at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.^[54] On 16 June 2008, she attended Prince William's investiture into the Order of the Garter, along with the Royal Family.

Engagement and wedding[link]

The newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace

Prince William and Catherine Middleton became engaged in October 2010 in Kenya, East Africa, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate Prince William passing his RAF helicopter search and rescue course.^[55][56] Clarence House announced the engagement on 16 November 2010.^[55][57] The couple married in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011,^[58] (St. Catherine's Day) with the day declared a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the global audience for the wedding ranged around 300 million or more, whilst 26 million watched the event live in the United Kingdom.^[59][60]

In October, several months after the wedding, Commonwealth leaders pledged that they would implement changes in British royal succession law to allow daughters of future monarchs to have equal rights to the throne.^[61]

Royal duties[link]

Public appearances[link]

The Duke and Duchess meet with U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace a few weeks after the wedding.

Middleton was formally introduced to public life on 24 February 2011, two months before the wedding, when she and Prince William attended a lifeboat naming ceremony in Trearddur, Anglesey, in North Wales.^[62] A day later they appeared in St Andrews and launched the university's 600th anniversary celebrations. On 16 February 2011, Clarence House announced that the Duke and Duchess's first royal tour of Canada would take place in July 2011.^[63]

In May 2011, shortly after the wedding, and while The Prince of Wales was in official visit to the United States, Clarence House announced that the Duke and Duchess would visit California after their Canadian tour. It was the Duchess of Cambridge's first visit to the United States.^[64]

In June 2011, the Duke and Duchess presented medals to members of the Irish Guards.^[65]

The Duchess visited the Canadian Museum of Civilization to attend a citizenship ceremony, on 1 July 2011 in Gatineau, Canada. The newly married Royal Couple were on the second day of their first joint overseas tour. They were joined by thousands of Canadians taking part in the Canada Day celebrations, which mark Canada’s 144th Birthday.^[66]

On 2 November, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the UNICEF Supply Division Centre for supplying food to malnourished African children in Copenhagen, Denmark.^[67][68]

On St Patrick's day, 17 March 2012, the Duchess carried out the traditional awarding of shamrocks to the Irish Guards at their base in Aldershot; this was her first solo military engagement.

The couple is due to visit Malaysia, Singapore, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands as a part of the Royal Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

Patronages[link]

In March 2011, William and Catherine have set up a gift fund held by The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry to allow well-wishers who want to give them a wedding gift to donate money to charities they care about instead.^[69] The gift fund supported 26 charities of the couple’s choice, incorporating the armed forces, children, the elderly, art, sport and conservation. These causes are close to their hearts and reflect the experiences, passions and values of their lives so far.^{[70][71][72][73][74]}

In January 2012, the Duchess announced the first charities which she will support.^[75][76]

These are:

• The Art Room^[77][78]
• The National Portrait Gallery, London
• East Anglia's Children's Hospice (EACH)^[79]
• Action on Addiction

She will also be a local volunteer leader with the Scout Association in Anglesey, north Wales, her marital home.^[80]

Titles, styles, honours and arms[link]

Titles and styles[link]

• 9 January 1982 – 29 April 2011: Miss Catherine Elizabeth Middleton
• 29 April 2011 – present: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge^[81]

Catherine's full title and style is Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge,^[81] Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus.^[82][83]

Unlike the majority of royal brides, and in contrast to most previous consorts-in-waiting for over 350 years, Catherine does not come from a royal or aristocratic background.^[84][85] On the morning of their wedding day on 29 April 2011, at 8:00 am, officials at Buckingham Palace announced that in accordance with royal tradition and on recognition of the day by the Queen, Prince William was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus.^[83][86]

Honours[link]

Royal Monogram

See also List of honours of the British Royal Family by country

Honorary military appointments[link]

Canada

• 5 July 2011 – present: Canadian Ranger^[87]

Honorific eponyms[link]

Awards

•  Ontario: Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Award, University of Waterloo, Waterloo^[88][89]

Arms[link]

Arms of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge Notes The Duchess bears the arms of her husband, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, impaled with her own arms. Catherine's coat of arms is based on those of her father Michael Middleton, which was granted to him by the College of Arms on 19 April 2011. Thomas Woodcock, Garter King of Arms, the senior officer of the College of Arms, helped the family with the design.[90] Adopted 19 April 2011 Coronet Coronet of a child of the Heir Apparent Escutcheon Quarterly 1st and 4th Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langed Azure (England), 2nd Or a lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure within a double tressure flory counterflory of the second (Scotland), 3rd Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (Ireland), the whole differenced with a label of three points Argent with the central point charged with an escallop Gules (Prince William); Impaled with a shield per pale Azure and Gules, a chevron Or, cotised Argent, between three acorns slipped and leaved Or (Middleton).[90] Symbolism The dividing line (between two colours) down the centre is a canting of the name 'Middle-ton'. The acorns (from the oak tree) are a traditional symbol of England and a feature of west Berkshire, where the family have lived for 30 years. The three acorns also denote the family's three children. The gold chevron in the centre of the arms is an allusion to Carole Middleton's maiden name of Goldsmith. The two white chevronels (narrow chevrons above and below the gold chevron) symbolise peaks and mountains, and the family's love of the Lake District and skiing.[90] Previous versions Her previous coat of arms depicted a lozenge shaped shield of arms which hangs from a blue ribbon, this symbolised her unmarried state. This version of the arms is now used only by her sister Pippa as it denotes an unmarried daughter of their father Michael Middleton.[90]

Ancestry[link]

In a study of the ancestry of Catherine, William Addams Reitwiesner uncovered that she shares ancestors with her husband Prince William; the closest relationship is via Prince William's mother and Catherine's father through a common descent from Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife Agnes (or Anne) Gascoigne^{[better source needed]}, daughter of Sir William Gascoigne and his wife, née Lady Margaret Percy.^[91] This makes the couple fifteenth cousins.^[92] Sir Thomas Fairfax and Agnes Gascoigne are through Catherine's great-grandmother Olive Lupton, daughter of a Leeds cloth merchant Francis Lupton and his wife Harriet (née Davis) – Fairfax being an ancestor of Lupton. In turn Lady Margaret Percy^{[better source needed]} is descended from Edward III.

Popular culture[link]

Following international attention regarding the wedding, Lifetime aired a TV movie entitled William & Kate on 18 April 2011, in the US.^[93] The film premiered in the UK on 24 April 2011.^[94] Middleton ^[95] was played by Camilla Luddington^[96] and Prince William by Nico Evers-Swindell.^[97] TV programmes were also shown in the UK prior to the wedding which provided deeper insights into the couple's relationship and backgrounds, including When Kate Met William^[98] and Channel 4's Meet the Middletons.^[99]

A second TV Movie is also being produced that covers much the same ground as "William & Kate". That movie titled William & Catherine: A Royal Romance stars Alice St. Clair as Kate Middleton and Dan Amboyer as Prince William.^[100] Of note in this second television movie is the appearance of Jane Alexander as the Queen and Alias alum Victor Garber as the Prince of Wales. According to The Hollywood Reporter the movie is scheduled to air 27 August 2011 in the United States on the Hallmark Channel.^[101] The movie was filmed in Bucharest.^[102]

Footnotes[link]

1. ^ As a titled royal, Catherine holds no surname, but when one is used, it is Mountbatten-Windsor.

References[link]