Duke asked for a plaster ... but didn’t mention crash
It was a surreal moment by royal standards, made even odder by the events that followed. Entering the office of Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary, Prince Philip appeared uncharacteristically unsettled. “Have you got a plaster?” asked the 97-year-old Duke. “I’ve cut my hand”.
Swiftly dispatching the former naval officer with a Band-aid, it was not until later that Young apparently discovered the cause of HRH’S injury. The Iron Duke had not deemed it pertinent to mention that he had just been pulled out of his overturned Land Rover and was lucky to be alive.
Almost a month on from those extraordinary events of Jan 17, a revealing picture emerges of the House of Windsor’s resident “Duke of Hazard”, who yesterday learnt he would not face prosecution over the crash near the Sandringham estate.
It came after the great-grandfather voluntarily gave up his driving licence following a collision between his Freelander and a Kia Carens on the A419 at Babingley, near Sandringham.
The Daily Telegraph has since learnt that, despite his narrow escape, the Duke genuinely had no idea who was in the other car, or whether anyone had been hurt until the press reported that Emma Fairweather, a passenger in the Kia, had broken her wrist.
He later explained in his apologetic letter to the 46-year-old from Norfolk that he had been blinded by the sun: “As a crowd was beginning to gather, I was advised to return to Sandringham House by a local police officer.”
Yet it appears it was some time before palace aides or the press office became aware of the true extent of the crash, as images sent to the media by the public began to appear.
The official statement simply read: “The Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a road traffic accident with another vehicle this afternoon. The Duke was not injured. The accident took place close to the Sandringham Estate. Local police attended the scene.” As one source put it: “They played it down because the Duke played it down.”
According to veteran royal reporter Phil Dampier, author of Prince Philip: A Lifetime of Wit and Wisdom: “Had the crash occurred on a country road and no footage emerged, we’d probably never have found out about it.”
Not that Philip wasn’t contrite. On the contrary, as well as being “shaken up” by the crash, he was also “furious with himself ”, according to insiders.
Determined not to lose his cherished independence, he took to the wheel the very next day – without wearing a seat belt – in a bid to prove that he was still up to it.
Land Rover keeps spare royal cars in case of accidents and breakdowns, which is why the Duke ended up back behind the wheel so quickly. “It wasn’t defiance, it was more an act of determination,” said an onlooker.
So cross was Philip with himself that it is understood his concerned children and grandchildren were warned not to make a fuss, which perhaps explains why Princess Anne said she had “no idea” how her father was when she was asked at a royal engagement two days later.
Nor were they even to entertain the idea of the nonagenarian giving up his licence “for fear it might make him dig in his heels even more”, according to a source. The Queen, who after 71 years of marriage has grown well used to her husband’s stubborn streak, also knew better than to press the issue. The
‘Had it occurred and no footage emerged we would never have found out about it’
royal author Sarah Bradford once gave an insight into who has really been in the driving seat throughout their marriage as she described an occasion when Philip was driving the Queen through Cowdray Park in West Sussex for a polo match with his uncle Lord Mountbatten in the back.
She said: “The Queen complained about him driving too fast and he turned to her and said: ‘If you complain once more I will put you out of the car.’ The Queen said nothing and when the journey came to an end Mountbatten said: ‘You’re the Queen, why did you let him talk to you like that?’
“She replied: ‘You heard what he said and he would have done it.’”
In the end, the Duke’s reluctant mind was made up following police advice that surrendering his licence was the best way to avoid prosecution. Until the crash happened, it’s fair to say HM’S “strength and stay” had had a rather cavalier attitude to motoring.
In 1947, on the eve of his wedding to Princess Elizabeth he was stopped for speeding on Constitution Hill, just beside Buckingham Palace.
“Sorry, but I’ve got an appointment with the Archbishop of Canterbury,” he told the incredulous policeman, who let him off with a warning.
During the two years they lived in Malta, he would roar round the narrow lanes of the Mediterranean Island in a sporty MG with the top down.
Such was his love of driving that he insisted on taking Barack and Michelle Obama from their helicopter to Windsor Castle when the president and first lady came to visit in 2016. The
‘When he went home he was up and down stairs, doing exercises to regain his fitness’
Obamas secret service minders were said to be terrified when 94-year-old Philip took the wheel but Obama said later: “I have to say I have never been driven by a Duke of Edinburgh before, but I can report it was very smooth.”
The Duke’s crash last month was not his first. He left Pat Daynes, a sales director, with whiplash after his Range Rover went into the back of a Mercedes at a zebra crossing in Brandon, Suffolk, on Jan 31, 1996.
But he has also been a knight in shining armour at the roadside. In the early Seventies he was on holiday at a remote cottage near the Inverpolly Nature Reserve, 80 miles from Inverness in Scotland. He was driving on a lonely road with local naturalist Rob Tweddle when they came across a Morris Minor stuck in a ditch.
Two astonished female teachers looked on as Philip and Mr Tweddle lifted the car back on to the road.
Mr Tweddle recalled in an article in 2011: “Philip told them, ‘Now don’t do that again’ before we drove off, leaving them open-mouthed.”
Although he may have come to the end of the road as a motorist, sources insist Philip will continue carriage driving and spending his summers waist-high in freezing water fishing for salmon in the Dee.
Dampier added: “I honestly think that the hip operation – which enabled him to attend both Harry and Meghan’s wedding and that of Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank last year – might mean he lives to 100. When he went home from hospital I know he was walking up and downstairs and doing exercises to regain his fitness.
“He’s always been a fitness fanatic, doing exercise daily, devised by the Canadian Air Force. His figure is the same as ever – he has some trousers 50 years old. He might have given up driving but the Duke of Hazard will never give up doing things his way.”