James Hewitt
British Army officer (born 1958)
James Lifford Hewitt (born 30 April 1958) is a retired cavalry officer in the British Army. He came to public attention in the mid-1990s after he disclosed an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales, while she was still married to then-Prince Charles.
Early life
Hewitt was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, where his father, 1952 Olympic pentathlete John Hewitt, was stationed with the Royal Marines. He grew up in Kent and Devon. His mother, Shirley Stamp, was daughter of a London dental surgeon who lived in Devon. Hewitt was educated at Norwood Preparatory School in Exeter before going to Millfield, a public school, in Street, Somerset.
Career
Military
After graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Hewitt was commissioned into the Life Guards, British Army, on 8 April 1978 as a second lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant on 8 April 1980. He transferred from a short service commission to a special regular commission on 1 October 1981. He was promoted to acting captain on 8 October 1984.
“James Hewitt” enters the record as british Army officer (born 1958). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what James, Hewitt and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1680558. VIAF identifies the subject as 166923687. The Library of Congress control number is no95034272. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1952, 1978 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Hewitt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.