The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Visits to Courier Country
The Duke of Edinburgh had a deep love for Scotland and made some memorable appearances in Tayside and Fife during his life.
Among his trips was a Queen’s Jubilee visit to Dundee in 1977 where he turned to verse for regulars of the Windmill Bar and proved he was a prince among men.
Prince Philip famously stopped at the bar on the Hilltown and pointed up at the windows before acknowledging the cheers of the regulars.
In the evening, after the visit, staff and regulars agreed to send a letter to the duke about the bar.
They produced three poems which were copied out on the back of a print of the bar and handed in to the Queen’s bodyguard at the City Chambers.
The bar was amazed some days later to receive a poem in reply, simply titled The Windmill Bar and signed Philip, thanking the regulars for their welcome.
The duke later established the Maritime Trust for historic ships and saved Captain Scott’s RRS Discovery from the breaker’s yard in 1979.
The Duke of Edinburgh was on hand to oversee its return to glory and returned to open Discovery Point in 1993 where the ship has been moored since 1986.
The Queen and Prince Philip were a fixture at many of Tayside and Fife’s most historic events for almost seven decades which will live long in the memory.
We have opened up our archives to take a trip down memory lane and look back at some moments in time captured by our photographers.
1 Our first image shows Prince Philip talking to one of the coopers on his visit to the
Dewar’s whisky plant in Perth in November 1965.
2 Prince Philip inspecting a plane during a visit to HMS Condor in Arbroath in May 1956.
3 The duke at the opening of Discovery Point in 1993 in Dundee. He established the Maritime Trust in 1969 which secured the ship’s future in 1979 following a joint application with the National Maritime Museum for the trust to own and restore the ship.
4 Prince Philip last officially visited Dundee in 2016, accompanying the Queen on a visit to the city’s new Slessor Gardens as well as the Michelin plant and Dundee University.
5 The duke speaks with students in their badminton class during his visit to Perth Academy in November 1965.
6 Prince Philip at the Buchanan Theatre, St Andrews, in September 1977. Also in the picture is businessman Peter Walters from BP.
7 The Queen and Prince Philip arrive in Dundee from the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1955. People lined the road from Barnhill to Stannergate on the Dundee side and from Tayport to Newport on the Fife side to catch a glimpse of Britannia.
8 The royal couple arrive at Keiller’s where they saw Spanish oranges being made into marmalade and showed great interest in the different processes. Prince Philip went very close to a pan as it was being emptied and a spurt of marmalade caught the trouser leg of his suit.
9 Prince Philip on a visit to Edzell Aerodrome in September 1952.
10 Prince Philip has to bend down to avoid banging his head as he gets a tour of the Unicorn at Camperdown Wharf in Dundee in July 1987.