Farewell to Prince Philip, the man, moderniser and consort

DUTY is not a word you hear a lot of these days. Self-expression and the cult of the individual now trump a sense of loyalty to values and a cause. People are urged to “live their best lives” and “follow their dreams”.

It would be wrong to say that the Duke of Edinburgh, who died yesterday a few short weeks before his 100th birthday, had a hard life. As a member of one of the most privileged institutions in the world, his long years as consort to Her Majesty the Queen were rich and fascinating.

But if you need an example of someone who showed unstinting duty to a monarch and his adopted nation, you would have to go a long way to find a better one than the life led by Prince Philip.

He was defined by his relationship with Elizabeth II – not something that can have come easily to a man from his background, interests and temperament.

But he quickly realised that if he was to properly support his wife he would have to relinquish the naval career he loved to steadfastly stand alongside the monarch and back her absolutely in her royal role.

While the Queen took centre stage, Philip was always, during his decades of duty, one step behind, ready to lend a hand. Over the years, he carried out more than 22,000 solo engagements and gave more than 5,400 speeches, as well as taking part in thousands of other engagements with the Queen and committing himself to innumerable obligations behind the scenes.

Some might have seen him as a curmudgeon, failing to engage with changing attitudes and new ways of working. Yet the duke had a profound effect on the development of the British monarchy and was one of the key modernisers of The Firm, understanding before many others had grasped it, that without developing a new public face, the House of Windsor could find itself sidelined and irrelevant.

What he also did was carry out his duties as consort while maintaining his own interests and keeping a powerful presence in British and Commonwealth public life. He was never just the dutiful consort, a step or two behind the Queen. He was always a man to command respect and pursue causes he felt passionate about. From time to time he also cheered us up with off-colour jokes and sometimes inappropriate comments, that made him all the more human and – for most – likeable.

His many military roles, including as Captain General of the Royal Marines until relatively recently, and his clear love for Dartmouth’s Britannia Royal Naval College, where he trained and where he first met the young Princess Elizabeth, shone through.

He was also a countryman, good with horses, understanding of the natural world and with a practical and unsentimental approach to animals which earned him far more respect on the ground than many armchair conservationists ever could, rightly seeing no conflict between care for the environment and country sports.

His passing will be most keenly felt, of course, by the Queen, who announced his death with “deep sorrow.” It is a sorrow we share. We shall not see his like again.