HARRY’S ‘PATHETIC’ ABSENCE

Once the sombre ceremony for Prince Philip was out of the way, conversation among the congregation turned to the elephant in the room – his grandson Prince Harry’s absence.

The 37-year-old recently publicly refused to attend the family occasion, blaming a row with the Home Office over him no longer being entitled to official police protection.

But attendees at the memorial have blasted the now California-based Duke of Sussex’s no-show as “pathetic”.

“[Him not being there] was a big disappointment for everybody. People were talking about it, certainly around where I was,” Richard Griffin, who was a royal protection officer for Prince Philip for 14 years, tells the Mail Online.

“All this nonsense about how he couldn’t get protection – as far as I’m concerned that was a pathetic excuse. He should’ve been here to honour his grandfather. At the end of the day, if he was that worried about security, he could’ve stuck with his brother and father who have got wonderful security and he’d have been more than safe.”