HARRY Windsor has has turned his back on Australia for good old Blighty.

But it is not the royal prince who is celebrating a return - for Harry is a gap-year student at Stonyhurst College in the Ribble Valley.

And the 18-year-old is learning all about his coincidental connections after arriving at the college, near Clitheroe.

Harry's normal address is Palace Street, Sydney. And his full name - Harry Charles William Windsor - is not to be confused with HRH Prince Henry Charles Albert David Windsor, although he has swapped places with his more famous royal namesake who jetted off to spend his gap year in Australia.

So while Prince Harry was there to see the Poms triumph over the Aussies in the Rugby World Cup - with a large slice of help from Stonyhurst old boy Will Greenwood - the other Harry had to put up with the taunts of the English students, particularly the under-14 rugby squad.

Not that this has affected his opinion of the locals: "People are noticeably friendlier and more welcoming here than in London, where I first went when I arrived just into the New Year," he said.

The number of royal coincidences surrounding Harry don't stop there. His family even has distant links with the late Princess Diana.

His grandfather, also Harry Windsor, performed Australia's first heart transplant and trained top Australian heart surgeon Victor Chang, whose work Diana was closely involved with.

One difference Harry is proud of is that his family, of Irish descent, has had the family name Windsor for more generations than the British Royal family, who were Saxe-Coburg-Gotha before changing to Windsor in the early 1900s.

Harry, who arrived in Stonyhurst earlier this year, explained his near royal title: "It has been a family tradition to name a son Harry.

"My middle name Charles is in memory of a young cousin who died and my other name, William, also has family connections."

He and fellow gap-year student Carl Giamanco are former pupils of the Jesuit St Ignatius College, Riverview, Sydney, which has a long-established exchange programme with Stonyhurst.

Both hope to go on to university - Harry could even go and join his 'brother' in St Andrew's.