Prince William became a commissioned officer in the Army today following his passing out parade at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

The future King paraded in front of his grandmother, the Queen, who told the 220 graduating cadets that they must be "courageous yet selfess; leaders yet carers" in their military careers, which will formally begin in the coming weeks when they join their regiments as officers.

The Prince will become a second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry’s Blues and Royals, where his title will be Cornet. His younger brother, Prince Harry, joined the regiment after passing out of Sandhurst in April. The two princes will both train to become troop commanders in armoured reconnaissance units.

The commanding officer of the Household Division said today that Prince William's career would be determined by "special factors" and he is expected to experience all three branches of the Armed Forces, which he will one day command.

But Major General Sebastian Roberts said he could not rule out the Prince's deployment to a dangerous situation.

William graduated the day after an official police report, three years in the making, concluded that the car crash that killed his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 was an accident. With his brother, the Prince asked for speculation about conspiracy theories surrounding her death to stop.

Today's happier occasion was overseen by the Queen, who also attended the passing out parade of Prince Harry. She presided over today's ceremony and told the cadets that they were all "very special people".

"You must be courageous, yet selfless; leaders yet carers; confident yet considerate, and you must be all these things in some of the most challenging places in the world."

The Queen was joined by Prince Phillip and the Prince of Wales overlooking the parade, but many eyes were for Kate Middleton, Prince William's girlfriend, who made her first public appearance at a royal event dressed in a red coat and sitting among friends and relatives of the other cadets in the general stands.

The Sword of Honour, awarded to the best cadet in each graduating class, was given by the Queen to Junior Under Officer Angela Laycock, only the third woman to win the prize.

Ms Laycock, who is joining the Royal Engineers, was in the same Blenheim Platoon as the Prince and said he was "just a normal guy that gets stuck in like everybody else".

"The only difference is that sometimes we’ll see his name in the paper and you didn’t notice he’d been off that evening doing a charity do. I don’t know how he manages to fit that in," she said.

Junior Under Officer David Robertson, who won the Queen's Medal for his high training scores, recalled the Prince throwing potatoes during a training exercise. "I will be able to tell my grandchildren I hit the future Monarch round the head with a 2lb potato."

Sandhurst Commandant Major General Peter Pearson said the other cadets had treated the Prince as just another training officer. "They all treat each other the same, they work together in groups. I don’t think it’s caused too much trouble for them."

And he was relieved that he would not have to decide whether the princes should serve in Iraq or Afghanistan if their regiment is deployed to a battlefield in the near future. Both have said they want to serve with their men.

"I think it’s perfectly understandable that anybody who joins the Army wants to go where their soldiers go," said General Pearson.

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