Ships fit for a Duke of Edinburgh: a history
SIR – There has been speculation about the possibility of naming a future royal yacht or warship in honour of the late Duke of Edinburgh (report, May 2).
This idea has a precedent. The first HMS Duke of Edinburgh was named in accordance with the wishes of King Edward VII, to honour his younger brother Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh following his sudden death in 1900.
In contrast to Prince Philip, who had to abandon his naval career to support the Queen, Prince Alfred was able to pursue his career, which culminated in his appointment as the Commander-in-Chief, Devonport, from 1890 to 1893 in the rank of admiral. He was promoted to admiral of the fleet on June 3 1893 and became the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha that August.
The 13,550-ton armoured cruiser named in his honour was built by Pembroke Dock and launched on June 14 1904. She joined the fleet in 1906 and fought in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. She was sold for scrap in 1920. Pembroke Dock also built five royal yachts, including HM Yacht Britannia’s predecessor HM Yacht Victoria & Albert (III).
The name Duke of Edinburgh was earmarked in the early 1960s for the second of the Royal Navy’s projected class of 54,500-ton aircraft carriers, which were cancelled in 1966. The lead ship would have been named Queen Elizabeth and the name Prince of Wales was reserved for the third ship. The latter pair of names were subsequently allocated to the Royal Navy’s latest fifth-generation aircraft carriers, which entered service in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
More recently, Prince Philip’s former command, HMS Magpie, inspired the naming of the Royal Navy’s latest survey ship: an 18m catamaran. The Duke approved the current HMS Magpie’s motto Lux in tenebris lucet (“The light shineth in darkness”) and sent a message to the ship’s company that was read out during her commissioning ceremony in Devonport in June 2018. The only potential complication relating to the use of the name Duke of Edinburgh is that the eighth Type 26 city class frigate is due to be named HMS Edinburgh.
Ultimately, however, the naming of a future ship in Prince Philip’s honour is a matter for the Queen and the Admiralty Ships’ Names Committee to consider.
Richard Johnstone-Bryden Beausoleil, Alpes-Maritimes, France
SIR – I would be delighted to see a new ship called HMS Prince Philip fulfilling a number of functions to the benefit of the UK, as well as righting a historic wrong: the loss of a royal yacht for the Queen’s use.
It is crucial that any ship performing this task is one of Her Majesty’s ships and manned by the Royal Navy. That is what gave royal yachts a particular cachet, smartness, efficiency and elegance.
These men should be additional to the Navy’s manpower ceiling and all costs should be borne by the Cabinet Office, not the Ministry of Defence. Admiral Lord West of Spithead (Lab) London SW1