It's a historic moment for the UK – this famous family member has become the first ever royal to join the social networking site
Prince Andrew has become the first royal family member in history to join a social networking site. The Duke of York joined Twitter last night and was met with both excitement and criticism.
His Twitter bio reads: 'The Official Twitter Account for The Duke of York. Tweets from HRH are signed - AY.'
The Duke of York sent his first tweet almost straightaway, saying simply: 'Welcome to my Twitter account - AY.'
The account has already been verified and Prince Andrew has already landed himself an impressive 22,530 in less than 24 hours. But don't expect any gossip about the imminent arrival of Kate Middleton's baby, for it looks like the royal plans to use the feed merely as a marketing tool.
Prince Andrew's decision to start tweeting coincided with the launch of the Duke of York Award for Technical Education. He visited the Black Country University Technical College yesterday – a new school offering year 10 and year 12 students the opportunity to focus on science and engineering subjects in a specialist environment.
A spokesman for the royal said: 'He was in fact the first member of the British Royal Family to tweet on the British Monarchy [account] when he visited Tech City. The logical next step was to tweet individually.
'The duke is a champion of free speech. For him it's about telling people what he's doing.'
Fingers crossed Kate Middleton's next...
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