A CROWDED monthly schedule for Prince Michael began on May 1 when the Prince arrived back in England from Puerto Rico where he had been guest of honour at a Gala Evening organised by the Wilnelia Merced Forsyth Foundation in aid of the San Juan Hospital del Nino for sick children.

On May 2, His Royal Highness attended a concert and dinner in aid of the London Youth Trust, an organisation that cares for homeless young people in the capital.

The concert, at the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West, featured a performance by a male vocal group, The Close Shaves, who impressed the Prince with a repertoire that ranged from classical works to modern popular songs.

In his capacity as Honorary Commodore of the Royal Naval Reserve, His Royal Highness then visited HMS King Alfred at Portsmouth on May 4 to join the RNR Medical Branch Continuous Training Programme.

One of several branches within the Reserve, the Medical Branch is made up from civilian doctors who devote part of their spare time to the RNR.

During the weekend of May 6/7, Prince and Princess Michael, along with their son, Lord Frederick Windsor, and their daughter, Lady Gabriella Windsor, were able to enjoy a visit to the Badminton International Horse Trials, an event which takes place not far from the family home at Nether Lypiatt Manor in Gloucestershire.

On Monday, May 8, Prince Michael attended a fund-raising luncheon at the Hilton Hotel in aid of the Variety Club International Lifeline Programme, of which His Royal Highness recently became Patron.

He said: "The Variety Club felt that there was a need for the sort of work they do to be made available in other countries, but, rather than set up their own staff and operation in those countries, they decided it would be more sensible to raise money to assist affiliated groups already on the ground. That is the purpose of the International Lifeline Programme."

John Ratcliff, a Past International President of the Variety Club, added that the initiative for the setting up of the International Lifeline Programme in 1962 had come from Lord Mountbatten. As well as using money raised to provide life-saving treatment for individual children, the Programme also funds the sending of medical missions to various countries where they will treat up to 40 cases during a visit.

Mr Ratcliff added: "To become a Lifeline patron today requires a pledge of $10,000, to be donated over ten years. At the lunch attended by Prince Michael we signed up 63 new Lifeliners, who were each presented with a gold pin by His Royal Highness."

The Prince next travelled to Birmingham where, as Patron of the British Security Industry Association's Export Council, he attended an International Dinner at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on May 10 before visiting the International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC) at the NEC the following day.

Back in London on May 11, His Royal Highness received the former Russian ambassador Yuri Fokine at Kensington Palace before going on to a meeting with Carolyn Cripps, the founder and organiser of the British-based charity Friends of Russian Children, of which Prince Michael is Patron.

That evening, as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, the Prince attended a Livery Dinner at Leathersellers' Hall in Bishopsgate at which a number of leading industrialists were present.

On the following day, May 12, Prince Michael attended a meeting of the Institute of Road Safety Officers at which he was presented with his Certificate of Fellowship, having recently been made a Fellow.

On Sunday May 14, His Royal Highness took part in the British Driving Society carriage drive at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. The cavalcade, which paraded for three-and-a-half miles around Windsor Great Park before returning to the main arena for a prize-giving ceremony, included nearly 40 turnouts. These ranged from ponies-and-traps to carriages drawn by teams of four horses.

Up until some fifteen years ago, Prince Michael used to take part regularly in competitive carriage driving, using carriages and horses from the Royal Mews at Windsor and at Buckingham Palace. "It was a very enjoyable thing to do," he recalls. "I only stopped doing it competitively when the horses were moved to Sandringham, where I sadly found them less easily available."

In his capacity as President of the Society of Genealogists, His Royal Highness attended a lunch on May 15 at the new Family Records Centre in Islington, during which he presented the Prince Michael Award, in recognition of the Centre's outstanding contribution to genealogy.

The Society of Genealogists exists to encourage members of the public tofind out more about their origins. The Prince, who succeeded Lord Mountbatten as President of the Society at the specific request of Lord Mountbatten himself, said: "I have always found the study of genealogy quite fascinating.

"We have very close links with the Family Records Centre as well as both the Public Records Office and the Church Records Office. Our own records, on microfiche and computer, are very extensive and we also have a good library, all of which are available to the public as well as to our many members."

Genealogy Officer Else Churchill added that the Society has has launched a Publishing partnership with origins.net to make many of its unique sources and finding aids available through the World Wide Web.

She said: "By embracing the new opportunities provided by the Internet we can offer family researchers easy, convenient access from their homes to important parts of our collection."

On May 16, His Royal Highness attended the memorial service for the late Lord Charteris of Amisfield, the Queen's private secretary for many years.

On May 18, Prince Michael attended a fund-raising dinner at the South African High Commission in aid of the David Shepherd Conservation Foundation of which the Prince is Patron, and the Endangered Species Protection Unit.

The dinner was followed by an auction of paintings by wildlife artists.

Over the following weekend, The Prince, with Princess Michael, visited their daughter, Lady Gabriella Windsor, in Florence, where she is attending the British Institute on a course of study that combines Italian with the History of Art, as well as a Cookery course.

The following week started with a visit, on May 22, to the Chelsea Flower Show, where the Prince, accompanied again by Princess Michael, particularly admired a garden design by Arabella Lennox-Boyd.

On May 24, Prince Michael opened a new Sports Hall at the Royal Masonic School for Girls at Rickmansworth. He said: "Several members of my family have been here over the years and Princess Marina opened the new school building in 1948."

On May 25, His Royal Highness lunched at the RAC, where he was brought up to date with the activities of the Motorsports Association, of which he is Honorary President

Later the same day, the Prince attended a meeting of the Prince Michael Road Safety Award Scheme. His Royal Highness has always had a keen interest in all aspects of motoring and he founded the Award Scheme fifteen years ago as a way of encouraging the motor industry generally to help fund a drive for greater road safety awareness.

The Scheme now involves more than fifty organisations, including manufacturers and retailers, the police, the RAC and the AA, the Motorcycle Federation, the Pedestrians Association and the British Horse Society, with awards made annually to people who have made an outstanding contribution to road safety.

Prince Michael said after the meeting: "We have now just decided to broaden it into the International Award Scheme and already have links with Eire, Sweden and the Middle East."

That evening, the Prince, with Princess Michael, attended the Gala Premiere, at the Plaza, Lower Regent Street, of the film 'To Walk With Lions', which tells the story of George Adamson and Tony FitzJohn and their work with lions.

Starring Richard Harris as Adamson, the premiere was in aid of the George Adamson Trust, the flying doctor service AMREF and the Society of Stars.

Recommending it highly as "a film with a strong message", the Prince remarked that he had been particularly impressed by the fact that the actors had actually been filmed in close proximity to real lions, despite the fact that both Adamson and FitzJohn had been mauled at various times.

On May 26, the Prince was at RAF Innsworth in Gloucestershire to visit the Cotswold Aircraft Restoration Group, of which he is Patron. A small group of volunteers, the Group has been responsible over the 21 years of its existence for rescuing and restoring various historic aircraft and other aviation items, many of which have then been passed on to museums worldwide

Group Chairman Tony Southern, who accompanied Prince Michael on a tour of the Group's workshops, said afterwards that His Royal Highness had talked knowledgeably and with obvious enthusiasm about the Group's work.

The Prince had also suggested that an appropriate home for one of the Group's acquisitions, a Viscount propeller, would be the museum at Brooklands, where the Viscounts were built, and of which he also happens to be Patron.

Still in Gloucestershire, His Royal Highness went on from RAF Innsworth to St Mary's Church at Berkeley where, as Patron of the Restoration Appeal Fund, he attended a reception organised by the Fund to launch an exhibition of paintings by local artist Peter Curran, with half the proceeds from the sale of the paintings going towards the Appeal.

Prince Michael commented: "I believe I am right in saying that Gloucestershire has more churches than any other county in England and St Mary's is one of the most important. It dates back to the 13th century and has some very fine frescoes."

On Sunday, May 28, the Prince took part in the RAC/AXA Classic Rally from Cheltenham to the Millbrook test track in Bedfordshire.

Driving a 1936 4-litre open-topped Alvis owned by the RAC, Prince Michael was accompanied by his son, Lord Frederick Windsor, who has just come down from Oxford, where he secured a 2:1 Honours degree in Classics from Magdalen College.

On May 29, as Patron of the Chatham Historic Dockyard Volunteer Trust, the Prince visited Chatham on the occasion of the first Navy Days open day to be held in Chatham since the Royal Navy pulled out twenty years ago.

The Trust has renovated and maintained the 80-acre Historic Dockyard site as well as restoring and preserving a number of vessels and other scheduled ancient monuments, including the oldest working ropery in the country.

Among the naval vessels permanently on display are HMS Cavalier, Britain's last surviving World War II destroyer, and a submarine, HMS Ocelot. Also berthed there is a Victorian sloop, HMS Gannet.

RN ships visiting specially for Navy Days included the frigate HMS Cumberland, the Fisheries Protection vessel HMS Shetland and the University Class ship HMS Blazer.

The day ended with a tattoo and a Closing Ceremony at which Prince Michael, in uniform as the Honorary Commodore of the Royal Naval Reserve, took the salute.

On May 30, the Prince was at Deptford where, as Patron of the Peter the Great Tercentenary Committee, he unveiled the plinth on which a statue is to be erected to commemorate the Tsar's historic visit to Deptford in 1698. The two-metre-tall Tsar spent several months working as a shipwright in what was then Britain's main naval shipyard in order to gain first-hand experience of ship design as part of his determined efforts to build up the Russian navy.

Formally unveiling the plinth, Prince Michael met the Russian sculptor, Mihail Chemiakin, who has been commissioned to produce the statue, due to be erected later this year.

Later the same day, His Royal Highness received the new Russian ambassador, Grigor Karasin, at Kensington Palace.

The historic naval theme was continued on May 31 when the Prince attended a reception aboard HMS Belfast for the Transport Trust, during which he presented the Trust's Preservationist of the Year Award.

The Trust, of which His Royal Highness is Patron, was formed in 1965 to help fund restoration and preservation projects across the whole field of air, water, rail and road transport.

This year's Preservationist of the Year Award went to the Military Power Boat Trust, whose chairman, Phil Clabburn, was presented by Prince Michael with The Great Britain Trophy - a handsome silver model of Isambard K. Brunel's 19th century steamship, the S.S Great Britain.

Based at Marchwood, on Southampton Water, the Military Power Boat Trust salvages and restores all types of naval power boats such as motor torpedo boats and motor gunboats.

Moored alongside HMS Belfast for the reception was an RAF high-speed air sea rescue launch, launched by the Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1936, that later featured in the Dunkirk evacuation. Prince Michael remarked afterwards on a rather extraordinary co-incidence.

He said: "The launch had the number 102 painted on its transom. That same morning, there happened to be a picture in the newspapers of Prince Philip aboard a Naval torpedo boat that had also taken part in the Dunkirk anniversary events. And the number displayed on its stern? 102! They were quite separate boats but by sheer co-incidence they both had the same serial number."

A busy month for the Prince ended with a dinner at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall for First Gear, the charity of which His Royal Highness is Patron and the aim of which is to provide young people with a basic grounding in elementary driving, car maintenance and road safety skills before they are old enough to get a provisional licence and to start taking lessons on the roads.

Among several leading figures from the world of motorsport who are Vice Presidents of the First Gear is former Formula 1 World Champion Nigel Mansell, who has been especially supportive, running an annual golf tournament at his own Woodbury Park Golf Club in aid of the charity.

"Like me, Nigel Mansell was just seven years old when he first started learning to drive," said Prince Michael. "I've always been a great believer in the idea that the earlier you learn to drive, the better you will be at it when you're old enough to be on the road. That is the thinking behind First Gear."