Royal writer Ian Lloyd pays tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh
Our royal correspondent, Ian Lloyd, pays tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh.
PRINCE PHILIP, Duke of Edinburgh, was not just the Queen’s husband and consort. Many have said that the prince’s greatest legacy is the total support he gave the Queen, as well as his belief in the monarchy in general.
Elizabeth and Philip were together on royal visits to well over a hundred countries, and in return they were hosts to a constant stream of monarchs and presidents.
They were a reassuringly familiar team at key national celebrations. Together they must have seen more shopping centres, schools, power plants and Royal Variety Performances than the rest of us have had hot dinners.
Even in his late eighties his workload was immense. Like many of his generation, Prince Philip believed in duty to Queen and country.
What makes his achievement even more notable is that it can’t have been easy for such a strong-minded and independent man to adapt to life in the Royal Family.
He was catapulted on to the world’s stage and lost his right to privacy, as well as coping with a team of formidable courtiers.
This understanding of what it was like to be an outsider made him sympathise with his daughter-in-law Diana.
Philip was born in 1921 in a beautiful villa on the island of Corfu. His father, Andrew, was a prince of Greece.
His mother, Alice, was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and, as civil war raged in Greece, it was she who pleaded with King George V take her, her newborn son and his four sisters to England.
Unfortunately, Alice’s mental health deteriorated during Philip’s crucial teenage years. He never saw her at all as she recuperated.
Meanwhile, his father retreated to Monte Carlo, where he lived in straitened circumstances with his mistress. He collapsed and died of a heart attack in 1944.
Though lacking the support of a close-kit family and the security of a loving home, Philip nevertheless battled through.
He later said it was a matter of sink or swim, and with the help of his uncles George Milford Haven and Lord Louis Mountbatten, as well as his many cousins, he coped as best he could.
His years at Gordonstoun School also helped him develop into a resourceful and self-reliant young man.
As a fit, active and boisterous personality, he was keen to play his part in the war effort and was a lieutenant in the British Navy.
He was mentioned in dispatches after the Battle of Cape Matapan and later on would witness the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
His wartime leave was often spent at Coppins, the home of his cousin Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, who, like Philip, was born into the Greek royal family.
Elizabeth’s earliest encounter with Philip was at Marina’s wedding in 1934 to Prince George, Duke of Kent, but it was to be another few years before love would blossom on precious wartime visits and, by 1946, the couple were privately engaged.
Philip would speak of those times during a speech to honour the couple’s golden wedding.
“It was a fairly drab world,” he recalled. “The post-war recovery had hardly even begun.
“Everyone seemed to think that our wedding was a very happy occasion and brought a little colour back to life after the dreary war years.
“We were then fortunate
to enjoy five happy years of fairly conventional married life.”
Their happiness was short-lived, however.
“This period came to an abrupt end when the Queen had the melancholy duty of succeeding her father after his premature death in 1952.
“She was twenty-five and I was thirty and we had two small children. Life changed dramatically in many ways.”
A few months later they would embark on a sixmonth world tour, leaving behind five-year-old Charles and three-year-old Anne.
In 1956, Philip embarked on another tour, lasting several months, but this time on his own.
It was later admitted that he was finding it very frustrating to have to walk two steps behind his wife, and to be a silent observer when courtiers and ministers came to brief her on matters of state.
The couple were reunited in Lisbon and, to ease any tension, the Queen and her ladies, hearing that Philip had grown a beard while he was away, decided to wear their own joke beards to greet him.
Philip, it was noted by reporters, emerged from his plane wearing a tie with love hearts on.
It is common knowledge that Philip was always closest to Princess Anne.
Her no-nonsense approach to life and her ability to take on any challenge she faced as well as a strenuous workload, was all very much in her father’s style.
Nevertheless, he always had respect for the strengths of his sons, even if he didn’t see eye to eye with them over many aspects of their lives.
During these years, Philip was mapping out his own future as a working royal. He would remain a very active patron and president of numerous charities and organisations.
The Duke was never afraid to court controversy. His gaffes and quips on foreign tours were the delight of every journalist.
Philip told guests at their golden wedding luncheon, “I think the main lesson that we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage.
“You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance!”
A former royal equerry confided, “What people don’t realise is that he’s immensely kind. No-one has a bigger heart, or takes greater pains to conceal it.”
Prince Philip was a great influence on his children, friends and on the many young people he inspired to take on the challenges of his award scheme.
He was most influential of all with the Queen, whom he helped to steer a steady course through the turbulent years of her reign.
He gave her the courage to remain resolute and he was always her greatest friend and confidante and, many would say, her hero.
Philip decided to retire from royal duties in 2017 at the age of ninety-six.
Even then, he didn’t sit around, but continued his hobby of carriage driving on the estates of Windsor and Sandringham.
He spent most of the year at Wood Farm, a few miles from Sandringham House.
His decision to spend most of the time away from his family was a typical no-nonsense decision to spare the Queen the day-to-day worry of watching over him while she still had the concerns of her role as monarch.
Of course, they chatted to each other by phone all the time.
The Queen gave a rare glimpse of the respect and affection she felt for her husband in her Diamond Jubilee address to Parliament.
“During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure.
“Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.”
The Queen will need all the support of her family as she bids farewell to the man who has stood by her side as her partner and friend for over 70 years. ■