The Prince of Wales currently holds the ranks of Admiral in the Royal Navy, Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Air Force and General in the Army.

The Prince is a strong supporter of Britain’s Armed Services and sees this as one of the most important parts of his role as Heir to the Throne.

His Royal Highness's relationship with the Armed Services is based on four themes:

• promoting the role of the Forces within national life, through operational visits and ceremonial duties such as medal presentations

• focusing on the professionalism and excellence of training

• supporting the welfare of service personnel and their families, especially those who are injured or bereaved

• helping to maintain the history and heritage of the Services through regimental links and veterans groups.

The Prince attends the Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph, and other commemorative events in this country and abroad, to pay tribute to those who have fallen during the course of battle.

The Prince is Patron of a number of charities and organisations which help to look after the welfare of soldiers and their families, including the Airborne Forces Security Fund, War Widows, British Forces Foundation, Royal Naval Benevolent Trust and the White Ensign Association.

The Prince has a special relationship with 12 regiments in this country and 10 in the Commonwealth.

The Prince is kept informed of the activities of his regiments and asks to be briefed on a regular basis. As Colonel-in-Chief, The Prince often visits his regiments on bases in this country and abroad, meeting soldiers and their families. He also meets injured soldiers on a regular basis at The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at Headley Court and Selly Oak Hospital.

The Prince of Wales's career in the Armed Services

His Royal Highness began his own career in the Armed Services in March 1971, when he started a four-month attachment with the Royal Air Force at Cranwell, Lincolnshire.

The Prince had already gained his private pilot's licence, and flew himself to Cranwell on 8 March, in a twin-engined Basset of The Queen's Flight, to start advanced training to qualify as a jet pilot.

Flight Lieutenant The Prince of Wales was awarded his RAF wings at Cranwell on 20 August 1971.

On 15 September, The Prince joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, under the graduate entry scheme, as Acting Sub-Lieutenant. The Duke of Edinburgh, and his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, had both been at Dartmouth.

Nearly two months later The Prince flew in a troop-carrying RAF Britannia to join the destroyer HMS Norfolk at Gibraltar. While training for his bridge watch-keeping certificate, The Prince attended a one-day course in escaping from a submarine, at HMS Dolphin, Gosport.

This included an exercise during which he was released from a chamber 100ft below the surface of a water tank. In February 1972, The Prince attended a one-day course in the submarine HMS Churchill.

During the next two and a half years, The Prince attended a four-month course at Portsmouth and served on four more ships. A 1974 Pacific voyage on the frigate HMS Jupiter included calls at Singapore, New Zealand, Tonga, Western Samoa, Honolulu, San Francisco, Acapulco and Bermuda. On 1 May 1973, The Prince of Wales was promoted to Acting Lieutenant.

On 2 September 1974 The Prince joined the Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton for helicopter flying training before being assigned to 845 Naval Air Squadron as a pilot on board the commando carrier HMS Hermes.

Following a lieutenant's course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, The Prince was given command of his own ship, the minehunter HMS Bronington, for the final ten months of his active service in the Royal Navy ending on 15 December 1976.

The following January he was promoted to the rank of Commander. He was promoted again on his 40th birthday in 1988, to Captain in the Royal Navy and Group Captain in the Royal Air Force.

On 14 November 1998, the Ministry of Defence announced that The Prince of Wales had been promoted to "2-star" Rank in all three Services of the Armed Forces to coincide with his 50th birthday.

His Royal Highness was again promoted in all three Services on his 54th birthday in 2002 becoming Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, Air Marshal in the Royal Air Force and Lieutenant General in the Army.

In 2006, The Prince was promoted to Admiral in the Royal Navy, General in the Army and Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Air Force.

The Prince of Wales holds honorary rank and appointments in many branches and regiments of the Armed Services.

On being appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment, a few months before he was 30, The Prince asked to take part in the parachute training course.

The Prince felt he could not "look them in the eye" or wear the Parachute Regiment's famous beret and wings badge unless he had done the course, he told his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, 15 years later.

"I felt I should lead from the front or at least be able to do some of the things that one expects others to do for the country," said The Prince.