William unveils cartoonist honour

Prince William unveils a sculpture, inspired by Gren outside the Media Wales building

Prince William has been shown a cartoon published on the day he was born as he unveiled a tribute to popular Welsh cartoonist Gren.

The prince opened the new Cardiff HQ of Media Wales, which includes a sculpture based on the work of rugby fanatic Gren Jones, who died early last year.

Gren - or Grenfell Jones - was a revered figure on the South Wales Echo.

William later watched Wales' 20-15 defeat to South Africa in the season's first rugby international in Cardiff.

On a tour of the newspaper offices, William was shown photographs of himself on the picture desk and joked: "2,000 pictures of me looking gormless."

The prince met executive editor Sandra Loy, who was monitoring incoming news and said: "I'm surprised it's not Obama, Obama, Obama all the way down."

Gren was a fixture in the South Wales Echo for more than 35 years

He was also introduced to South Wales Echo editor Mike Hill, a fellow Aston Villa fan, and quipped: "I've only met about three, we are in short supply."

Mr Hill showed the prince a Gren cartoon, published in the Echo on the day he was born.

Depicting William's birth, the caption read: "She won. He's to be William Arthur Philip Louis. If it had come down tails he'd have been Arkle Nijinsky."

Gren drew daily cartoons for the South Wales Echo for more than 35 years, including a Saturday cartoon strip, Ponty and Pop, depicting the Welsh obsession with rugby.

Before leaving, the prince officially opened the new headquarters of the Western Mail, Echo, Wales On Sunday and Celtic newspapers.

He unveiled a 10 metre-long wrought iron cartoon in memory of Gren, who died in January 2007.

The prince was taken on a tour of the Media Wales newsroom

Artist Nia Wyn Jones spent 46 days recreating Gren's characters Ponty and Pop and Nigel the Sheep

The cartoonist's children, Daryl and Chris, were present at the ceremony.

Later, the prince met wounded service personnel, who were invited to the clash between the 2008 Grand Slam winners and the visiting world champions.

It is the first of this year's autumn internationals at the Millennium Stadium and the Prince William trophy was won by South Africa following a 20-15 win.

Players from both teams wore stars to show their support for an anti-racism campaign launched by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) last week.

Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) chief executive Roger Lewis said the Wales team had no hesitation in supporting the campaign.

"The sport of rugby union crosses many social and political boundaries and has the ability to unite nations through its competitions."