A TRUE PRINCE
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
‘We are truly blessed to have had his service for so many wonderful years’ HIS DEDICATION TO HIS PEOPLE IS A TRUE INSPIRATION
Eccentric, sometimes controversial but always dutiful, Prince Philip has been the Queen’s ‘rock’ for almost 70 years, since their breathtaking wedding at Westminster Abbey.
It was always a love match – and at a function to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in 1997, the very private monarch paid a public tribute to the man who wooed and won her hand in marriage so many years ago.
‘He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments,’ she said in her customary, crystalclear tones. ‘He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know.’
A top palace aide adds: ‘His service to public life is remarkable, he is a truly great man. He’s never wavered in his commitment to the Commonwealth, his family and all people he meets. We are truly blessed to have had his service for so many wonderful years.’
Turning 96 next month, the Duke of Edinburgh’s health has been the subject of several news reports in recent years, with a series of hospital admissions. Most recently, Prince Philip was forced to pull out of Battle of Jutland commemorations in June last year, due to medical advice.
At the time, Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips said of his grandfather: ‘He’s nearly 95 years old, but his head thinks he’s 55 years old. He’s as determined as ever to plough on and to keep things as normal as possible.’
Certainly the former British naval officer and decorated WWII hero valiantly continued to soldier on through his increasing frailty, joking just before his 90th birthday: ‘Bits are beginning to drop off !’
Although both he and the Queen scaled back their official duties by about 50 per cent to make way for younger royals in recent years, the dedicated duke still performed many of them. In 2014, he increased his workload from 184 to 273 official engagements, despite spending part of the year recovering from abdominal surgery. And in 2015 – the year he turned 94 – he managed 217 UK engagements and travelled overseas for a further 33.
He remains an interested patron of more than 780 organisations, particularly focused on the environment, industry, sport and education, and serves as patron of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme he co-founded for young people in 1956.
Peter, who reckons his grandparents ‘set a pretty high bar for everyone else to meet in terms of the work ethic’ admires Prince Philip’s strong sense of duty. But as early as June last year he also commented: ‘The duke is now at the point where he only wants to do things that he enjoys.’
Today he has become the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch – so if anyone deserves a restful retirement, it’s Prince Philip.
But his hard work will be much missed, together with his hilarious and occasionally unfortunate gaffes. The duke dubs it: ‘Dontopedalogy; the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practised for a good many years.’
Once he asked the Scottish Tory Leader Annabel Goldie whether she was wearing tartan knickers, and enquired of Tom Jones after his 1969 Royal Variety performance: ‘What do you gargle with, pebbles?’
Elton John copped a serve in 2001, when the duke said: ‘Oh it’s you that owns that ghastly car is it? We often see it when driving to Windsor Castle.’
There’s no doubt the Greekborn prince can be, as he once said of himself, ‘a cantankerous old sod’, but his long and loyal service to the Queen and to his adopted country are without question. From his honeymoon in 1947, Philip wrote of his royal bride: ‘Lilibet is the only thing in the world which is absolutely real to me and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good.’
Even the duke’s most determined critics would have to say he succeeded.