Duke’s children pay tribute
PRINCE Philip’s four children have revealed how they will best remember their father in a new heartfelt tribute aired as the grieving royal family rework plans for his funeral.
The Duke of Edinburgh died at Windsor Castle on Friday, nearly three weeks after being discharged from a London hospital following treatment for an infection and heart condition. He was two months short of turning 100.
British media reported the Queen was by the side of her husband of 73 years when he died peacefully in the morning.
Prince Charles was later driven from his home in southwest England to Windsor Castle to comfort his mother and help adapt funeral plans to adhere to coronavirus restrictions.
In an interview recorded for broadcast after Philip’s death, the heir to the throne said his father ‘‘didn’t suffer fools gladly’’ and would ‘‘probably want to be remembered as an individual in his own right’’.
‘‘His energy was astonishing in supporting my mama, and doing it in such a long time,’’ Charles said. ‘‘What he’s done amounts to an astonishing achievement, I think.’’
Philip was the longest-serving consort in British history and, according to the Queen, her ‘‘strength and stay’’.
A former naval officer who served in World War II, he was the patron or president of more than 800 organisations or charities, conducted hundreds of trips abroad on behalf of the government and created the popular Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
Philip is survived by the Queen and their children Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. He had eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
In Friday’s BBC documentary, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward also offered fresh insights into the Duke of Edinburgh’s tumultuous childhood and the challenges of joining the royal family.
‘‘I think it was always a challenging role to take but he’s done it with the most extraordinary flair and the most extraordinary tact and
diplomacy,’’ Edward said.
‘‘He’s never ever tried to overshadow the Queen in any shape or form.
‘‘And he has always been there as that rock in the Queen’s life and certainly in the family that was exactly the same.’’
In a separate interview for television network ITV, Edward said his father’s image as an occasionally controversial figure was not deserved.
‘‘The public image that certain parts of the media would portray was always an unfair depiction,’’ he said.
‘‘He used to give them as good
as he got and always in a very entertaining way.
‘‘He was always able to manage interviews and say things that the rest of us always dreamed we could say. He was brilliant. Always absolutely brilliant.’’
Anne, who shared a particularly close bond with her father, conceded Philip had difficulty adjusting to his role as consort following the Queen’s coronation in 1953 at age 27.
‘‘In the Royal Navy he was in charge of ships, he was making all the decisions,’’ she said. ‘‘In his next life, so to speak, he was making very few, which must have been an incredible challenge to have to deal with.
‘‘His appreciation of how he could help the Queen always seemed to be present in terms of supporting her. She was very young when she became Queen and it needed to be a double act for a lot of that time in order to allow her to take on that role.’’
Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families on a kitchen table on the island of Corfu but went into exile with his family at just 18 months of age. The family fled to France, where his parents would later separate. His mother Alice suffered a mental breakdown and his father went to Monte Carlo, leaving Philip to eventually attend school in Scotland.
‘‘It can’t have been easy and life was uncertain and everyone had to rely on other people to help – and presumably he had to fall back on himself quite a lot,’’ Charles said.
Charles recalled a story where Philip’s ailing mother, who later became a nun, told her son she wanted to be buried in Jerusalem next to her aunt Elizabeth the Grand Duchess of Russia, who was canonised as a Russian Orthodox saint.
‘‘My father said to her ‘but hang on a minute, how are we ever going to visit your grave?’,’’ Charles recounted.
‘‘And she said ‘don’t be so silly, there’s a very good bus service from Athens’. She was that sort of person. And you could see where my father got that directness.’’
Philip is likely to be buried in the grounds of Frogmore House near Windsor Castle.