It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.
I always think of him as a man who has lived a life in the shadow of a great Queen. He was to be one of those people who was not truly recognised for all he achieved. Someone once said of him.
‘It’s never crowded along the extra mile.” This talks of resilience and persistence. Even when we are doing what we are meant to be doing in the world, we sometimes have to dig deep, and keep going – that’s what sets apart great, from good.
Prince Philip once said. ‘If you believe things always work out for you, so they do. We create our world from our perception of it.’
He was known for his forthright sense of humour - a classic example of this is in a speech he made while visiting Bude in North Cornwall. He said ‘I am absolutely fascinated how people managed to get to Bude when it is so far away.’
Prince Philip and Prince Charles had their differences, Prince Philip said. "He is a romantic, I am a pragmatist. And because I don't see things as a romantic would, I'm perceived as unfeeling." His inner thoughts were rarely expressed in public.
In other ways he was just like Prince Charles, Prince Philip warned of the impact on the environment, well before it was even vaguely fashionable. He was an environmentalist before anyone really knew what that was. He warned of the "greedy and senseless exploitation of nature." And in 1982 he brought up a topic that now grips us, but back then was almost never spoken of, "a hotly-debated issue directly attributable to the development of industry... the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," which he referred to as the "greenhouse effect".
Another longline passion for him was nature and conservation and he was made the international president of the World Wildlife Fund.
From his speeches, we get a glimpse of the man. For someone who sat through so many ceremonies, he was clearly impatient. In one speech at Chesterfield College of Technology, he told students and staff "A lot of time and energy, has been spent on arranging for you to listen to me to take a long time to declare open a building which everyone knows is open already."
Once when asked about his life and was it about supporting the Queen? "Absolutely, absolutely, my only distinction," he said, "was that I did what I was told to do, to the very best of my ability, and kept on doing it, gladly.“ That I think is the measure of the man. Rest in peace Prince Philip, you deserve it.
So sad. What a life he has lived!
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