Nixon note over a Royal faux pas revealed

A NEWLY-UNEARTHED handwritten note has revealed that a faux pas by the Duke of Edinburgh at a White House dinner with former US president Richard Nixon in 1969 caused Philip to lose sleep.

In a handwritten note to the president uncovered by archivists at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, Philip wrote to “humbly apologise” for failing to toast the president’s health, as dictated by protocol during a “stag” dinner in his honour.

Writing from Greenland on November 7 1969, a year after his solo trip to the US had concluded, the Duke wrote: “After the brilliance of the other speakers and yourself, I am afraid my contribution was very lame.”

He added: “That night I woke up in a cold sweat when I realised I had forgotten to propose your health!”

Jim Byron, executive vice president of the Nixon Foundation, said: “I think the letter itself shows the character of Prince Philip that so much of the public in the UK and across the Commonwealth, and really across the world, have come to admire.”

He said the letter was discovered before the coronavirus pandemic but made public this week, as a way of marking Philip’s death.

“It expresses some private feelings of a moment in time that the public really doesn’t always get a chance to see,” Mr Byron added.

During White House dinners, honoured guests usually offer a toast to the president’s health and success. Philip wrote to Mr Nixon that he could not “begin to tell you how much I appreciated your very great kindness and hospitality at the White House. I was quite overwhelmed by the guests but delighted to meet such a distinguished company.”

The Duke mentioned travelling to New York, where he was interviewed by Barbara Walters for NBC’s Today show. “The weather in New York was horrible but otherwise all went well,” he wrote, “and I found Miss Walters particularly charming and intelligent.”

Mr Byron said Mr Nixon almost certainly replied to the letter, but, with the archives remaining closed because of the pandemic, what he said is unknown.