Duke played along to student hijack hijinks
Prince Philip was “hijacked” from his Rolls Royce on his way to Lincoln College during a visit to New Zealand.
But, not only were police and his own security team aware of the plot, they also helped facilitate it.
It was 1973 and the Queen’s husband was about to visit the university when his motorcade was intercepted by a group of students and he was put onto a tractor and trailer that had hay bales and pitchforks on it.
It was a prank dreamed up by some of the students — and one Prince Philip was happy to play along with.
“The Duke was coming to visit Lincoln College because he had quite a strong interest in agriculture,” former student Alastair Mackintosh told the Herald.
“A few of us got together and thought it would be very nice if we hijacked him with a tractor and trailer and bales of hay, and take him in to Lincoln.”
The journey was only about 500m, but getting it ticked off by officials was no easy task.
After a few meetings with the police chief, they were eventually given the green light.
“We met the Duke on the main road into Lincoln and he came aboard our trailer with the bales of hay. When the Prince got out of his Rolls Royce his briefcase fell out onto the road, I said, ‘I hope your lunch isn’t there’.
“We drove him in to Lincoln and he chatted away to us like the lovely man that he was.”
Mackintosh said it wasn’t the tractor ride that shocked the dignitaries, rather his mate, the late Bernie Davidson, who dressed up in pink long johns and suit jacket, pretending to be the Prince.
Davidson’s son, James, yesterday shared the group’s hijinks on social media, complete with a few photos from the university’s collection.
Mackintosh said the only condition from Prince Philip’s security team was that he was to sit on a blanket so he wouldn’t get hay on his trousers.
“He was such a nice guy, honestly. He was great, he really was, he thought it was a nice prank, a nice touch,” Mackintosh said.