From a different time, he E rated action, not words
YESTERDAY, as Prince Philip was laid to rest at St George’s Chapel, it felt as though a door had been quietly but firmly closed on the world that many of us had known since birth. And, yes, it was painful. It may not have been the best of all possible worlds and it was not without turmoil and dissent.
But there was once a sense that we were all moving in the same direction towards a modern and a fairer post-war future.
The Duke of Edinburgh was, like so many of his generation, an embodiment of and an advocate for that modernity.
There seems none of that certainty now. Britain is a far more prosperous country than it was when the Queen came to the throne. In some ways it is a more tolerant nation. But is Britain “at ease with itself” as John Major would have it? Far from it.
The usual suspects on social media were out in force after the Duke of Edinburgh’s death, so certain in their spite.there have been the inevitable anecdotes about his gaffes and put-downs but somehow they are wearisome.there was so much more to the man than this.
For many of us the tributes from people from all walks of life have reminded us that though the Prince was no saint, he was endlessly inquisitive, questing, energetic and open to new ideas.
How refreshing this seems when a blinkered refusal to entertain anyone else’s opinion is now the default position of many. He looked outside not inwards and had no interest in talking about himself, though even by his early 20s he had led an extraordinary life.
His boyhood was so blighted and lonely but he never sought the sympathy vote.
He was of a generation that didn’t talk about feelings. Now we talk about little else believing it is the healthy and right thing to do.there’s some truth in that but there’s also something powerfully attractive about those who rein it in.
Much has been said about Philip’s distinguished war record though, typically, he never said much about it himself.
He served with distinction in the Royal Navy but, of course, he was only one of many movers and shakers in that post-war world with significant military experience.
What a different time it was. From Churchill’s premiership until 1979, every prime minister except Alec Douglas-home (because of illness) and Haroldwilson
(he volunteered but was moved to the civil service) had served in the military in either the First or Second World Wars.
Both Labour’s Clement Attlee and the patrician Conservative Harold Macmillan had been wounded in the Firstworldwar.
Anthony Eden said fighting in Flanders had given him a “sense of the irrelevance and unreality of class distinction”.
AS AN aspiring MP, James Callaghan appeared in his uniform for his selection meeting. Denis Healey was the beach master for the British assault brigade at the Battle of Anzio. Lord Carrington and Willie Whitelaw were, like Eden, awarded the Military Cross.
Though there was the usual cut and thrust of politics there was not then the cynical assumption that those in public life were in it for themselves.
These were individuals who had seen life from the sharp end at a very young age and
had been formed by it.they were serious people. Such a man was Philip and in 1947 he married the woman whose accession to the throne in 1952 would usher in what many called a New Elizabethan Age.
The 1950s are often portrayed as an age of austerity and drabness sandwiched between the urgency of the war years and the excitement of the Swinging Sixties.
But when the Queen came to the throne there was the feeling that – through this dutiful and rather lovely young woman – continuity with the past could be mingled with energetic and forward-looking endeavours in (particularly) the arts, architecture and technology.
That’s why the TV coverage of the Coronation, which Philip supported, was such a deeply symbolic event – an ancient monarchy displaying itself through the brash new democratic medium. Philip later regretted letting too many TV cameras in to scrutinise his family but he was one of the first to understand that a constitutional monarchy must be seen and heard.
Youth was both the solution and the problem to the post-war future with a moral panic on both sides of the Atlantic over rock’n’roll, the accompaniment to the tribal and occasionally delinquent behaviour of teenagers who apparently had no great interest in the world war that had recently been fought on their behalf.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, which began in 1956, came from a sense that something had to be done for young people.
Since then more than six million teenagers have joined the scheme in the UK and millions more across 140 countries.
He used his “soft power” to encourage the practical application of science and was instrumental in setting up the Royal Academy of Engineering, just one of hundreds of scientific bodies that he supported.
Philip was the first president of the new Worldwildlife Fund (WWF) now theworld
Wide Fund for Nature. “His importance to conservation worldwide has been absolutely huge,” said Sir David Attenborough of the Prince.
PHILIP SAW no contradiction between his environmental concerns and his fondness for hunting, shooting and fishing. “I think that there’s a difference between being concerned for the conservation of nature and being a bunnyhugger,” he told Fiona Bruce in an interview 10 years ago.
He was an alpha male, a warrior, a sailor, a pilot, a connoisseur of beautiful cars, an accomplished and aggressive polo player (his language at Cowdray Park could melt your ears). He had a love of Savile Row tailoring and the glamorous looks to carry it off.
“Prince Philip was quite simply one of the best-dressed men in the world,” said Becky French, creative director of Jermyn Street’s
Turnbull & Asser who made the Duke of Edinburgh’s white tie attire.
Though it was the Covid pandemic that determined the pared-down nature of yesterday’s funeral, it also felt right, with the small family gathering, the Land Rover hearse, the subdued intimacy.
It’s fair to say that the Duke of Edinburgh’s departure from this world was as modern, as low-key and as free from fuss as he would have wished.
He rated action not words and spent his life using his unique and strangely unofficial position as the Queen’s consort to simply get done the things which he thought were worth doing. He was regarded with affection by many but it has taken his death for us to realise quite how much he achieved by using his privileged position for the greater good.
Many have spoken of his legacy which, predictably, he hated. “Legacy? ... It’s got nothing to do with me,” he said. “It’s there for people to use. I couldn’t care less.”