8:07AM, Thu Jul 12, 2012

Princess Eugenie - The Low Profile Princess

By Hugh Macknight Location: Newcastle

Princess Eugenie arriving at Newcastle University. Owen Humphreys PA

A story that students have been swapping lately bears testimony to the low-profile Princess Eugenie has kept during her three years at Newcastle University.

Apparently, a young undergraduate, unaware of who he was talking to, asked the unassuming brunette if she was free to come to a Jubilee party.

Her reply, the story goes, was a polite refusal with the explanation she was going to her grandma's birthday in London.

No mention was made of her key position on a boat in the Thames flotilla last month, according to the tale.

Fellow students have described the princess as friendly and down to earth, and as someone who knuckled down to achieve her 2:1 in English and History of Art.

With her discreet security keeping a low profile, the Queen's granddaughter kept fit with spinning classes in a campus sports centre, in between stints poring over books in the university library.

Her hard work paid off as she gained a first in her dissertation.

Princess Eugenie arriving at Newcastle University. Owen Humphreys PA

Her time in Newcastle started at the austere-looking Castle Leazes Halls of Residence - the designs of which, student legend has it, were based on a Swedish prison.

She moved to the suburb of Jesmond, which has been colonised by wealthy students.

Ben Travis, a fellow English graduate from Newcastle said, "She was just a normal, friendly, down to earth girl.

"She was in one of my seminars and would sometimes come with her friends to study-group sessions. She would really get involved and just seemed to genuinely enjoy the subject."

A law student, who attended spinning classes with Eugenie explained how, at first, the people in the class had no idea who she was.

"She would just turn up with some of her housemates, say hello to everyone and then get on with it," she said. "No one ever made a big deal out of it."