Blog: They wouldn’t have stood and waited like that for anybody else except his granny. That’s what one frank New Zealander said of crowds waiting to see a young prince pass by.

And we’ve also heard it said so many times over the past few days that the compassionate visitor had been “incredibly moved” by so many of the stories he heard.

Just a month before the wedding, which is already a global phenomenon, William of Wales has also confirmed yet again that along with added royal duties, he has a lovely common, caring touch which endears him to everyone he meets.

If we want to send a royal to the other side of the world where floods devastated half a continent, an earthquake left a wrecked city, broken homes and lives and a people grieving lost loved ones, we could do no better than dispatch the Queen’s grandson, whose disarming but warm and gentle manner is a winner.

This is a young man who crouches down to talk quietly to an old lady in a wheelchair, grins broadly and obliges when a youngster invites him to a hand-slapping high five and speaks earnestly and, yes, is visibly moved as he does so, to families who lost loved ones in the Christchurch disaster.

There were moments when William was close to tears, not least on his wider tour taking in flood-stricken parts of Australia when he met Blake Rice, the 11-year-old whose brother died making sure that Blake survived raging floodwaters.

Little Blake shook hands with the prince as he toured flood-ravaged areas of Queensland and said brother Jordan, aged 13 and a non-swimmer, would have been proud of him.

It was Jordan who told rescuers to save his brother first as flash floods overwhelmed them. The teenager and his mum were to die, with Blake and his dad left to grieve and never forget.

The brave youngster said after meeting William: “My Dad told me to make sure I gave him a firm handshake so I shook his hand and he told me that I needed to be strong.”

Being strong at around that age when you’ve lost someone so dear is something Prince William knows about only too well.

No one is better equipped to help comfort a nation or just one little boy. And at the end of June, he takes his new bride to Canada to meet the people, a trip surely destined for success. Granny, you can be well proud of the lad.