Prince Philip

[Suff]

I have sat through a short section of BBC focus on this. If I heard once that Philip wanted no fuss, I heard it a dozen times.

What do I see? Fuss. Because fuss makes and sells news.

I am extremely sorry for the Queen, however I hope the last year gave them so much more time than they would have had in his last year had things been normal.

This circus is irritating, especially as half the outlets were at pains to run him down every time he said something out of place.

I wish the family well and hope they can take some comfort in that he no longer has to struggle to make things appear normal.

I worked with a Corporal in one of my workshops. He had been infantry and was deployed to Balmoral one year as support and they were used as beaters in the grouse season.

He told an interesting story about almost falling over a man couching in the rain, with a shotgun, in soaking wet clothes. He said "how are you doing young man", the corporal, having no clue who he was talking to replied (excuse the language this is a direct repetition), "I'm cold wet and fucking pissed off", "how do you think I fucking feel, at least you can walk around and get warm", says the man, at which point a young lieutenant rushed over and started saluting the man and saying "sorry sir, I will deal with this sir". Philip turned to the officer and said "Fuck of lieutenant, I am talking to this man". And he continued a short conversation.

That is the Philip I will remember. Regardless of the 8 days of outpouring of manufactured grief.

I am sure that the family has a whole treasure house of similar incidents to keep their memories warm.

[Workingman]

I am a long time Republican, but even I feel the loss and sadness. He so very nearly made it to 100. Also, sadly, it reminds us that we are so near the the end of the second Elizabethan period, and what a period it has been.

I was on Honour Guard for the Queen, Philip and Andrew at RAF Honington in Jubilee Year. I was one of those oiks you see carrying umbrellas or standing 10m apart in front of the crowds, but not on parade. Anne, Charles and Edward were at Sandringham as the reception committee for the garden party to be held later and Honington was a short stop over on the way from London.

The military parade ended and the Royals were meeting the huge crowds of locals lining the drive to station HQ when Philip goes off script.... A young mum had her toddler in arms and she is waving one of those windmill flowery things when it flies out of her hand and drops in front of Philip. He picks it up and gives it a wave about before laughingly handing it back - then mayhem broke loose. There were offers of windmills from all directions and P was taking them, sometimes two, giving a whirl and handing them back. Next thing he realises that The Queen is some way away and giving a bow and doing the pretend run thing to say that he had to go, he was off.

My kind of bloke.

[TheOstrich]

On the other hand ....

My late FiL was, 50 years ago, a pioneering headmaster at one of the first new-build secondary modern schools to open in this country after a round of education reforms. He put his heart and soul into helping what were then regarded as "the kids who couldn't make it" and one of the things he did was introduce the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme into the school as an extra-curricular activity at the time when the DoE was itself getting off the ground. The local grammar and private schools didn't get involved (there was some concern about the DoE Scheme at the time; it was mooted that it could be regarded as rather like a modern-day pseudo-Fascist Youth organisation), but FiL enthusiastically embraced it and became one of the first schools in the country to adopt it.

As recognition of this, the school was chosen for a visit by HRH. FiL had previously strong-armed many top-nobs in the local community to lend their support / sponsor the scheme to get it underway, and it was a chance to issue an invitation to them to say thank you. He had also purchased a special pen that HRH could use to sign the inaugural visitor's book, which would then go in display in the school as part of its "emerging history".

On the day, HRH arrived by helicopter onto the school's playing field, dismissed the waiting dignitaries with something like "I can't be bothered to speak with that lot", and headed straight to the school-children to talk with them. Much chagrin amongst the sponsors, and huge embarrassment for FiL. When proffered the pen to sign the book, HRH ignored it, whipped out his own and made his signature.

The "special" pen that was never used never went on display. FiL took it home, and as far as we know, it was probably thrown out years later. And Mrs O tells me that FiL never spoke about Prince Philip again.

My S, who is / was fairly high up in the DoE organisationally, has attended more than one Buckingham Palace garden party, has seen him in action and has remarked that this behaviour of dismissing the dignitaries and heading for the "unwashed" is serial behaviour.

All very well, perhaps, but too many people left disappointed and effectively snubbed over the years .....

[Kaz]

That's a shame for your FiL Ossie, but I think the prince felt a bit of an outsider himself, and hated pomp. There's a lovely story of him being found on the morning of JFK's funeral, on the floor of the White House, playing with the very young John Jr, to distract him. There's also a photo of him holding the little boy's hand, at the inauguration of the JFK memorial at Runnymede, a year or so later. He was obviously drawn to children, and the DoE scheme is a marvellous legacy.

[Kaz]

My mum-in-law knew the late Robin Woods, the Bishop of Worcester, and his wife, back in the eighties, through D's work helping to set up Macmillan in Gloucestershire. She and Mick's dad went to lunch at their home, and got to know them fairly well. He'd been the Dean of Windsor, and was quite close to both HM and PP during that time, and beyond. In fact his character featured in that daft fictionalised drama, The Crown He didn't gossip about the royals to D and M, of course, but from how he spoke it was obvious he liked and respected PP very much.