HRH Prince Philip - Passed Away

From a friend

A sad day for the Royal Family, the Country and my former Regiment.

His Royal Highness Prince Phillip went above and beyond in his duties, taking a very personal interest in the Regiment for many decades. Being a former serving officer in the Royal Navy he knew how to engage with every rank and how important humour is to any service called upon to do some of societies most challenging roles.

In the late 1980’s before my service he was visiting one of the Battalions at a training camp on Salisbury Plain. The programme ran over two days and he stayed in the makeshift Nissan hut designated as the Officers Mess overnight. In the evening after a slightly raucous dinner everyone thinned out to bed, only to be woken by a large explosion at around 3am. The entire officer’s mess paraded out on the adjoining square. A window was thrown open and smoke bellowed out followed by the head of a rather dishevelled Prince Phillip. It was clear that a young officer in a moment of hubris and stupidity had thrown a thunder flash into the Dukes room. The commanding officer made it clear that he expect the officer in question’s resignation letter the following morning. The mess sobered up quickly and went back to bed.

At 5am they were all once again woken by a loud explosion. Yet again everyone filed outside, this time joined by the Duke of Edinburgh. As they stood there waiting for another rollicking from the Commanding Officer, a different window was thrown open and after the smoke began to clear the head of the offending young officer appeared.

With held from his protection team The Duke had settled the score and saved the young officer’s career.
But I bet the duty officers' roster was amended so that the young Rupert was kept busy for a month - at least.
 
Philip was a keen sportsman and kept fit throughout his life.

He was made captain of hockey and cricket while at Gordonstoun.

In 1949 Philip took up polo while living in Malta for two years and went on to become one of the best players in Britain.

He gave up playing at the age of 50 due to arthritis and took up carriage-driving, which he did into his 90s.

Philip attended and took part in Cowes Week Sailing Regatta many times, fuelled by his love of the sea.

And he also had a love of the air and took his first airborne flying lesson in 1952


Royal commentator Wesley Curr tells Sky News Prince Philip's passing is "very sad".

"I'm thinking of the two of them," he says. "It's really a very, very great love story. They had a meeting in 1939, but they had met before at family occasions because he was a distant cousin."

But ever since that meeting in Dartmouth, the Queen, at the age of 21, had her sights set on marriage and wed Philip a few years later in 1947.

"It has been rather wonderful in a way that they spent nearly the whole of the last year together," he says.

"I think they always wanted it to actually end this way... at Windsor."

Mr Kerr added that the couple had been living in Windsor predominately since his retirement in 2017.

He also said that Philip was an "accomplished watercolour artist" and read a lot, owning around 13,000 books


Gordonstoun School has told of its "great sadness" after learning of the death of one of its first pupils.

The duke attended the school from the age of 13 and had developed his love of sailing and other sports there.

In his later years, Prince Philip regularly visited the school - most recently in 2014, when he "insisted on joining students in the queue for lunch, rather than taking a seat and having it brought to him"
 
I'm not a hater of the royals but there really isn't any need for all three free TV channels to be dedicated to showing only things about Prince Phillip.

The BBC have two channels show it on one and that is fair enough.
Even radio 3 is talking. At least have a "sombre music" alternative. Barber's adagio all day, or the Agnus Dei version.
 

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