Philip was ‘very randy’ says Navy chum, 97
PRINCE Philip’s days as a dashing young naval officer were laid bare yesterday by a 97-year-old former comrade who cheekily said he’d been ‘very randy’.
The rather revealing depiction came courtesy of retired Commander Keith Evans, who served with the Duke of Edinburgh in the late Forties.
Speaking ahead of a visit by the Queen and Philip to celebrate the centenary of Pangbourne College in Berkshire, where Cdr Evans was once a pupil, he was asked about his recollections of the prince, 95.
Cdr Evans, who served on HMS Hood, replied: ‘He was a bit randy – but you had better not put that down!’ However, he then decided the description should stick – and insisted on amending it to ‘very’ randy, adding: ‘Not “a bit” – very.’
Cdr Evans – who was nicknamed Scratch, reminisced with Philip and showed him a letter the prince had sent him – addressed to ‘My dear Scratch’ – after he wrote to Philip congratulating him on his engagement to the then Princess Elizabeth.
He also joked that the Duke was following his own lead in deciding to give up public duties this autumn, adding: ‘Like Prince Philip, I’m standing down from most things in August.
‘He is following my example. I think it is rather good news.’
Cdr Evans quipped that Prince Philip would welcome his new-found freedom from royal duties – and from the Queen’s rule at home, adding: ‘He will do what he wants rather than what she tells him to do! He will still be around.’
Cdr Evans, from Haslemere, Surrey, is chairman of the HMS Hood Association and is the oldest living Pangbournian.
He and Philip, who met in 1947, were young officers at HMS Royal Arthur, a shore establishment at Corsham, Wilt- shire. Cdr Evans said of his former shipmate, who was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark before abandoning the titles and taking the name Mountbatten to become a British citizen to marry the princess: ‘He was 18 months [my] junior.
‘He was lieutenant. I was about to be promoted to lieutenant commander. He was then Lieutenant Mountbatten – they had got rid of all that Greek nonsense.’
Cdr Evans revealed that he once deliberately kept Philip waiting – while he enjoyed a tot of gin with their captain.
Philip had to see the captain of HMS Arthur because he wanted to visit George VI to confirm that he wanted to marry the king’s daughter.
Cdr Evans recalled: ‘The captain, who was a little mischievous, said to me, “He is a bit junior to you. Let’s keep him waiting in your office while we have a glass of gin” – which we did!’