The Eddie and Wills show: Redmayne's first star role - with Prince and their very upper-crust Eton chums

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Eddie Redmayne and Prince William were in the same rugby team at Eton
Both were made prefects but did not stay in touch after leaving school
Bafta winner was also pictured alongside Prince outside College chapel
The Mail tracked down the rest of their schoolmates in elite photograph

Published: 18:08 EST, 8 February 2015 | Updated: 20:40 EST, 8 February 2015

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These days, the backdrop is usually a star-studded red carpet. But during his teenage years, Eddie Redmayne tended to be pictured in an even more exclusive setting.

The 33-year-old actor, man-of-the-moment at last night’s Bafta awards, posed in a number of fascinating photographs during his time at Eton, including several with his contemporary, Prince William.

One shows Redmayne starring in a house play, Pravda; another sees him standing on the steps of the College chapel as fellow choristers lark about behind him; a third depicts him posing with William and fellow members of an under-16 rugby side.

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A strong back row: Eddie Redmayne and Prince William (both circled) were stalwarts of the same rugby team at Eton in 1997

Praiseworthy: A young Eddie Redmayne keeps a straight face as fellow choristers cavort behind him

‘We were on the same Colts B team in 1997,’ Redmayne has recalled. ‘I always felt slightly sorry for Will because everyone wanted to tackle the future King of England. He took all the hits.

‘I’m pretty sure Will was more intimidating than I was. I don’t think I intimidated anyone in my life. I haven’t seen him since school, but he was a lovely man.’

Perhaps the image Redmayne is proudest of dates back to 2000, when he and the Prince achieved a signal honour: they were elected to The Eton Society, a body known as ‘Pop’, which contains roughly 20 of the most popular final year students.

The elite group, the equivalent of prefects, are selected by their peers, and have a string of duties, including organising tours of the £35,000-a-year boarding school for prospective parents.

In return, they are allowed to wear brightly coloured waistcoats, which you can see being proudly displayed in the photograph below — with its swaggering echoes of those famous shots of Oxford University’s Bullingdon Club.

Sartorial elite: The 17-year-old William lounges against the wall in a tiger-striped waistcoat while fellow prefect Eddie, next to him, appears to be taking it all very seriously

We know all about Redmayne’s successes, but what became of the other members of this ultra-exclusive club?

1. George Broke

He is noted in West London’s posher party circles for his devotion to fancy dress, but he comes from the most blue-chip of backgrounds: his father, also George, was Equerry to the Queen. After gaining a 2:1 degree in anthropology from Durham, he took a job with accountancy firm Grant Thornton, but now works as business development manager to the Priory Group, which runs the £2,500-a-week celebrity rehab clinics.

2. Eddie Redmayne

Stole the show in school productions of Jesus Christ Superstar (he played Herod), Passage to India (playing a woman — Adela Quested), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pravda, before studying history of art at Trinity College, Cambridge. Earned a BAFTA Rising Star nomination for 2011’s My Week With Marilyn, and plaudits in the 2012 TV series Birdsong. This year, he’s mopping up awards for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything. Married Hannah Bagshawe in December.

Baftas 2015: Eddie Redmayne named Leading Actor

Eddie Redmayne picked up the Best Leading Actor awards at the BAFTAs for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything

3. William Wales

Pictured in a tiger-print waistcoat, our future King’s Eton wardrobe also included a waistcoat made from his football team Aston Villa’s purple and light blue livery. After St Andrews university, he became an RAF Sea King search and rescue pilot. Finished active service in 2013.

4. Tony Selwyn

An environmental consultant, Tony works for London firm WSP advising on road and railway projects. Was previously in Doha for seven years. Has a substantial beard and, like Prince William, is a motorcycle enthusiast.

5. Tom Roberts

Tom studied accounting and finance at the London School of Economics before joining Torch partners, an investment bank focusing on tech and internet ventures. His twin sister, Laura Roberts, is a former Daily Telegraph journalist who is now head of press for ITN.

6. Alistair Balfour

Went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied International Relations, before working for UBS. Is now an associate with TowerBrook Capital Partners, an American private equity company.

7. David Ferreira

One of the most gifted Etonian sportsmen of his generation, David, the son of Bermuda lawyers, captained the school squash, basketball and cricket teams, was on the first XI for football and first XV for rugby, and was the Atlantic Junior Open golf champion. While studying PPE at the University of Pennsylvania, he was selected to play cricket for Bermuda. He later won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, before going into the law, working first for Linklaters in London and Singapore, and more recently for the U.S. firm Logan Circle Partners.

8. Alexander True

Went to Bristol University, before going into the City to seek his fortune. After a few years as an investment consultant with Credit Suisse, he moved to Newton Investment Management, and is currently an investment manager at Sarasin & Partners, a London asset management firm.

9. Harry Aubrey Fletcher

The son of Sir Henry Aubrey Fletcher, Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, Harry was one of Prince William’s closest school friends, and they remain close. His 2011 marriage to Louise Stourton (a cousin of No 13 Ivo Stourton) was attended by Prince William and Kate (Wills was an usher). Later, Harry was photographed tweaking the Prince’s ear, in a private box at Cheltenham races. Last March, William and Kate went to Louise’s raucous birthday party at Bunga Bunga, a karaoke bar and restaurant in London where diners are entertained by Elvis impersonators and drag queens.

Prince William is still friends with Harry Aubrey Fletcher, who is pictured tweaking the future monarch's ear as the Duchess of Cambridge giggles in the background

10. Jamie Wrightson

His dad is Sir Charles Mark Garmondsay Wrightson, 4th baronet. His maternal grandfather was Bertrand Dawson, George V’s physician. The family pile is Neasham Hall, County Durham. Despite this background, Jamie left England after university to seek his fortune in China. He spent several years working in Shanghai, but now lives in Singapore, where he works in shipping for the Wallem Group. Became engaged to Spanish girlfriend Cristina Alvarez last year.

11. Tristan Rodgers

Studied economics at Edinburgh before spending five years at PwC, the accountancy firm. Now working in property, he is finance director of Newcore Capital Management, a real estate investment management firm which puts money into ‘alternative’ projects such as student housing, social accommodation and healthcare facilities.

12. Tomas Stael Von Holstein

A tubby schoolboy, Tomas went on a gap year to India. He returned several stone lighter, having decided to devote his life to yoga and meditation. After a stint working for Kids Company, the London charity run by Camilla Batmanghelidjh, he founded The Art of Meditation, a firm which runs meditation retreats in France and the English countryside. A few years ago, Tomas appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s F-word TV show with Harry Walsh, cooking in a team of old-Etonian amateur cooks who were dubbed ‘posh gits’ by the irascible Michelin-starred chef.

13. Ivo Stourton

Ivo is a man of parts. The son of broadcaster Ed Stourton — the former Today Programme presenter nicknamed ‘posh Ed’ — he gained a double first in English from Corpus Christi, Cambridge, before pursuing unlikely dual careers as a lawyer and novelist. By day, he toils as an associate at London legal firm Slaughter and May. By night, he churns out books. Three have been published so far, most recently The Happier Dead, a sci-fi thriller. Close to Redmayne at Eton, he has also written a number of plays, including one about the Vietnam War in blank verse which won plaudits at the Edinburgh festival. Met his wife, Natasha, at law school.

14. Edward King

The son of Eton Housemaster John King (who was mischeviously nicknamed ‘Juan’), he is now Dr Edward King, a junior research fellow at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, specialising in Latin American Cultural Studies. He flirted with a career in journalism, and once worked at The Week magazine, but according to his website, is these days ‘pursuing his interest in connections between technology and culture in Latin America’ and will devote 2015 to organising a symposium on ‘Orientalisms in Latin American culture’.

15. Ed Millais

After leaving Eton, Ed found God, in a big way. Having trained as a barrister (he once worked at Holman Fenwick Willan), he decided in 2011 to take a year off to volunteer as a group leader at his local church, St Andrew’s Chelsea. That year turned into two, and then three. He can now be found running the Sunday School and after-school club at Christ Church, Mayfair. A keen shot and fly fisherman, he’s married to a maths teacher, Alice; they have a young daughter.

Promising newcomer: A teenage Eddie Redmayne in the 1997 production of the play Pravda

16. Vachan Kashyap

Super-brainy, he won a scholarship to Eton and became one of the first ever ethnic-minority ‘captains’ or head boys. He then went to Magdalen, Oxford, and in his first term met future wife Liz (they were cast opposite each other in a student production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé). Now lives in Putney, works at JP Morgan bank and has two small children.

17. Hamish Barne

A former soldier, Hamish spent nine years in the Scots Guards, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also an adjutant at Trooping the Colour in 2011, and for a time worked as Equerry to the Duke of Kent. He left the Army in 2013, and spent two months of last year driving from London to Cape Town in a truck, to raise money for charity.

18. Matt Lowe

The President of ‘Pop’, who won a music scholarship to the school, he is now a professional cellist, who played for the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the opening night of the Proms last year (they performed Elgar’s The Kingdom). He also still teaches cello at Eton and coaches the school’s String Quartet.

19. James Parry

A scholar, who was joint head of school with Vachan Kashyap, James is believed to be a lawyer. In 2012, he was working at Herbert Smith.

20. Harry Walsh

A graduate of Newcastle (he studied accounting and economics), Harry is now an investment manager at Rathbones. He married Sam Spencer in his native Gloucestershire in 2012 and, touchingly, has since called himself Harry Spencer Walsh.

21. Dave Walston

Farmer Dave helps to run his family’s 2,250-acre estate in Cambridgeshire, and is involved in their Wagyu beef business, about which he regularly blogs and tweets. Last year, he became the subject of a heated protests after unveiling plans to plonk a solar farm on Green Belt land near the village of Thriplow. The application was rejected in December by planners.