Say what you will about the Duke of Sussex - his memoir certainly provides fodder for gossip. However, its pages also reveal how he fought to start something that put a previously unseen segment of the disability space on the global stage.
It seems the whole world has its nose in Prince Harry’s Spare. And while many a brotherly spat and salacious revelation is baiting clicks, the Duke of Sussex’s memoir contains something of great substance that won’t make a splash in the headlines. That is, how the Invictus Games came to be.
Like him or lump him, Prince Harry’s Invictus Games is an undeniable triumph for the disability community. The international sporting event for injured and ill soldiers - both serving and veterans - uses the power of sport to encourage recovery and support rehabilitation. Each year, it celebrates hundreds of athletes from all around the world, and raises awareness of the strength and resilience of people who’ve acquired disability in service of their country. Each year, it puts a positive vision of disability centre-stage.
Prince Harry himself served in the British Army for ten years, rising to the rank of Captain and doing two tours of Afghanistan. Spare shares much of his experience here and sheds light on how he came to create the Invictus Games.
Harry was inspired by the Warrior Games in Colorado
In 2013, Harry took a five-day royal tour of the US to promote the rehabilitation of wounded British and American soldiers. During a “stop-off” in Colorado, he came across something called the Warrior Games. “A kind of Olympiad for wounded soldiers, with two hundred men and women taking part, each of whom inspired me,” he writes.
On the flight home, Harry scribbled out his vision for something similar. “A version of those Warrior Games, but perhaps with more soldiers, more visibility, more benefits to participants.” By the time his plane touched down, his idea had taken form. “A Paralympics for soldiers from all over the world! In London’s Olympic Park! Where the London Olympics had just happened!”
William wasn’t keen on Harry’s idea
Harry’s first step in getting the games off the ground was to pitch it to the Royal Foundation Board. William and Kate were about to welcome their first child and would be “out of commission” for a while, so Harry thought the timing for his project was perfect. He pitched it, the board said yes, and Harry reached out to his brother with the news.
“He was sorely irritated,” writes Harry of William’s response. “He wished I’d run all this by him first… He complained that I’d be using up all the funds in the Royal Foundation. That’s absurd, I spluttered. I was told only a half-million-pound grant would be needed to get the games going, a fraction of the foundation’s money.”
According to Harry, William’s resistance to the games was rooted in “sibling rivalry”. Of course, this is only his side of the story.
Harry convinced semi-retired Sir Keith Mills to help him make it happen
When it came to who would be in charge of the games, Harry’s private secretary, Ed Lane Fox, advised the Prince to find someone with “the uncommon organisational skills, the social and political connections, to take on a job this size”.
According to Fox, this person was entrepreneur and deputy chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Sir Keith Mills.
When Harry met with Mills in November 2013, Mills told him he was trying to wind down work and focus on his passions, like sailing in the America’s Cup. But Harry twisted his arm – despite insisting on a very tight, nine-month turnaround.
“I wanted the games to coincide with the centenary commemorations of the First World War. I felt that connection was vital. [Mills] sighed, promised to consider it. I knew what that meant.”
For six years, Mills was Chair of the Invictus Games Foundation Board of Trustees, stepping down with the appointment of Lord Charles Allen in 2021.
A “clever Royal Marine” came up with the name
Harry had been calling his idea the International Warrior Games - but this was deemed too much of a tongue twister. Where did Invictus come from? The Prince writes that “a clever Royal Marine” offered this preferred alternative. “As soon as he suggested it we all said: Of course! After the William Ernest Henley poem!”
Henley, a Victorian era British poet, wrote his short poem ‘Invictus’ in 1875, taking inspiration from his experience of recovering from the amputation of his left leg, removed due to his tubercular arthritis.
In September 2014, at the inaugural opening ceremony at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, British actor Idris Elba read ‘Invictus’ before Michelle Obama appeared via satellite to introduce Harry.
Harry was extremely anxious at the first opening ceremony
As he walked the red carpet to the podium for his speech, Harry wrote that his cheeks “looked red-carpeted as well”.
“My smile was frozen, the flight-or-fight response in full effect. I scolded myself under my breath for being this way. The games were celebrating men and women who’d lost limbs, pushed their bodies to the limit and beyond, and here I was freaking out about a little speech.”
Harry rushed through his words, but what he launched that day has sustained.
In September of this year, the Invictus Games will be held in Düsseldorf, Germany, bringing together over 500 competitors from 20 nations to compete in a series of adaptive sports. For the first time, one of those sports will be table tennis - something that both Harry and his wife, Meghan, promoted alongside athletes with disability in a teaser for the games.
While the media storm around the couple’s Netflix series - and now Spare - will likely last mere weeks, Harry’s Invictus Games is a legacy of which he can be truly proud.
