Entertainer shares memories of Duke
VETERAN Welsh entertainer Wyn Calvin has shared his memories of his friend the Duke of Edinburgh, including hosting Prince Philip’s 70th birthday party.
Mr Calvin, 95, vividly remembers the party at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich in London.
“I hosted the event and spent a great deal of the evening with him (the Duke). At one point, he said, ‘You’ve come all the way from the north of Scotland’.
“I explained that, yes, we were holdaying in Scotland. I told him that until we’d gone up there I couldn’t understand the attraction and explained that I’d holidayed there every year since first going up north.
“I said,’until I went up there, I couldn’t understand why you and the Royal Family go up there every year’.
“The Duke replied very simply: “I have no option!”
Mr Calvin added that he met the Duke many times through his association with the theatrical charity organisation The Water Rats.
“The Duke was The Royal Companion of the Order of the Water Rats.
“One night we were at a dinner in The Lodge, sitting together at The King Rat’s table. He said,’i enjoy being with the Water Rats. I enjoy being with entertainers who entertain each other’.
“That was a very shrewd assessment of the situation!”
Mr Calvin added: “The Duke decided that for our 150th birthday anniversary as an order we should have a reception in Buckingham Palace.
“It was arranged that we should be in this very splendid gallery at which The Queen and he would be present
“It was an amazing occasion, but I was told by him beforehand, ‘It’s a big venue - but there’s no microphone there. So, YOU will have to make the speech!’ - which is the most subtle way I’ve ever been called a Big Mouth.
“It was a huge privilege for me to start a speech with the expression ‘Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness’. Now, you can’t top that as an opening for any speech, can you?
“Apparently it made them both laugh because I refered to the fact that in the 150-year history of the
Grand Order of the Water Rats few would ever have visualised that one day we would be received here (Buckingham Palace) in these most magnificent ‘digs’.
“I thought they wouldn’t know what digs are, but I was wrong and they both laughed
“And they went on to do so again when I mentioned that ‘most splendid landlady’. I didn’t think The Queen would know what a landlady was, but I was wrong. She knew of the expression in showbizzy terms. She knew what a landlady was.”
Mr Calvin said the Duke’s contribution to public life was immense.
He added: “I always found him to be a ready wit - and he always had a witty retort to almost anything in conversations.
“The last occasion I saw the Duke was at that occasion at the Palace about two years ago.
“He was, in theatrical terms, a ‘performer’. He knew how to cope with crowds, or with small groups of individuals, He knew how cope with them, how to amuse them, or interest them.
“He was a natural performer.”