Royal family’s TV tribute to ‘prankster’ Prince Philip
Memories of Duke railing at gadgets and creating silly games as BBC programme features ‘shipshape’ study
IT WAS the centre of his working life for decades. The Duke of Edinburgh’s study can now be seen just as he left it, complete with shipshape desk and touching mementoes from his marriage.
The Duke’s Buckingham Palace study, described as a “very practical room without frills”, has been filmed for the BBC as part of a tribute to the longest-serving consort in history, with insights from those who knew him best.
Despite his love of keeping up with the latest inventions, his grandchildren said, he could often be heard shouting from his study about his new laptop or that most infuriating of office hardware – his printer.
The study will be seen on television tomorrow night, along with the Duke’s library and Private Secretary’s office.
Described as “rather like the bridge of a ship” for its strict order, the desk has room for a Faberge double frame holding photographs of George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, presented as a gift by the Queen’s parents on their 1947 wedding day.
On the windowsill is a bronze statue by sculptor Doris Lexey Margaret Lindner of the Queen on horseback at Trooping the Colour.
In the Private Secretary’s Office, known as the Pine Room, a painting by Alexander Talbot Rice shows the Duke in a carriage-driving marathon, while a model of his Dragon-class racing yacht Bluebottle stands on the book shelf.
Peter Phillips, the Duke’s eldest grandson, said: “I just have memories of him getting a new laptop or a new printer, sitting in his office and hearing him shouting at it. Couldn’t get it to print or he couldn’t get this … I mean he loved technology, he loved gadgets but it was always quite entertaining to see him trying to figure them all out. Zara Tindall, said “we’d always try and find him new gadgets for presents”, with her grandfather often examining them before exclaiming “well that’s just bloody stupid”.
The Duke of York, in one of several short contributions to the show, said: “His study was rather like the bridge of a ship because the bridge of a ship is very well organised in such a way that everything is within reach.”
The scenes form part of an hour-long programme about the Duke, in which 15 members of his family share stories of him as both the “epitome of the stiff upper lip” and doting family man.
Princess Eugenie, who introduced her infant son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank to his namesake just a few days before he died in April aged 99, revealed her grandfather had painted a picture of her as a surprise wedding gift, now her pride and joy.
Prince William recalled the Duke’s favourite prank of asking a grandchild to hold a squeezable tube of mustard between their hands with the lid off.
“And then he’d squish your hands together to fire the mustard on to the ceiling,” he said.
“He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother for covering most of the places we had lunch and things with mustard on the ceiling.”
The Princess Royal describes how he taught his four children to drive very early, on the family’s private estates, as well as setting up go-kart tracks, teaching swimming, sailing and reading bedtime stories.
“The one thing my father did he was marvellous at arranging silly games,” said the Prince of Wales.
“The fun of having young parents was there were lots of chasing around and mad things.”
Prince William said: “My grandfather loved things when they go wrong.
“Both my grandparents love that because you can imagine, they’ve lived a life where everything has to go right the whole time and so when things go wrong, they both chuckle an awful lot.
“Everyone else gets mortally embarrassed, they love it.”
Prince Harry added: “The two of them together were just the most adorable couple.”
■ Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, will be aired on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.