Camilla Tominey

Charles’s poignant tribute to his ‘dear Papa’ was a fitting reflection of a relationship that mellowed with time, says Camilla Tominey

It was the solemn pledge that both made to the Queen, 16 years apart. In swearing to become Her Majesty’s “liege men of life and limb”, Prince Philip and Prince Charles shared a special bond as the monarch’s most trusted supporters.

Philip may have made the promise at the Coronation in 1953 and Charles upon his investiture as the Prince of Wales in 1969, but the declaration joined father and son in a shared endeavour that would characterise parallel lives spent in devoted service to Queen and country.

So it is hardly surprising that the heir to the throne should have issued such a poignant tribute yesterday as he remembered “my dear Papa”.

Praising more than 70 years of “the most remarkable, devoted service to the Queen, to my family and to the country, but also to the whole of the Commonwealth”, he spoke fondly of how “enormously” the Duke would be missed, describing him as “a much loved and appreciated figure”. Having previously told a prerecorded TV documentary that his father would “want to be remembered as an individual in his own right”, the Prince said he would be “deeply touched” by the outpouring of grief and sorrow from around the world.

“My dear Papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful for all that. It will sustain us in this particular loss and at this particularly sad time,” he added.

Much has been written about the somewhat strained relationship between Philip and the eldest of his four children.

The Duke’s decision to send the introverted and, at times, oversensitive future king to Gordonstoun, rather than the Queen’s preferred option of Eton, forever immortalised the stark difference in character between outgoing Philip and his painfully shy son.

Charles’s description of the Scottish boarding school as “Colditz in kilts” came to characterise a

They shared a special bond as the monarch’s most trusted supporters