Prince George is growing up fast in photos to mark birthday

Prince George looks every inch the happy royal in two new photographs released to mark his seventh birthday.

With his blond locks and gap-toothed smile, the future king is growing up fast in the pictures taken by his mother the Duchess of Cambridge.

Kate snapped away at her son during the lockdown earlier this month, and the images are likely to have be taken at their Norfolk home.

George celebrates his seventh birthday on Wednesday and in one picture smiles directly at his mother's camera as he wears a polo shirt.

In the other picture, he is more casually dressed in a T-shirt with a camouflage design and stands side-on in the image.

Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge was born in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, at 4.24pm on July 22 2013, weighing 8lb 6oz.

He made his public debut in front of the world's media on the hospital steps one day later, wrapped in a white merino wool shawl, cradled in his proud parents' arms.

A great-grandchild to the Queen, he will be the 43rd monarch since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England if, as expected, he follows the reigns of his grandfather, the Prince of Wales, and then his father, William.

During the lockdown, George was pictured a number of times with his younger siblings, five-year-old Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, aged two, applauding health and care workers during the weekly show of support.

William and Kate have both joked about home-schooling George and his brother and sister during the past months.

When the duchess was asked about teaching her children in a recent interview, she mentioned the popular book Spider Sandwiches by Claire Freedman.

She said: "George gets very upset because he just wants to do all of Charlotte's projects. Spider sandwiches are far cooler than literacy work."