Prince philip: consort to the queen, companion of the nation | thearticle

The Duke is dead. Long live all the things that he stood for: old-fashioned virtues such as courage and courtesy, along with an appetite for adventure that he successfully encouraged through

his reward scheme. His deep love of the natural world, too, will have an abiding legacy in a country that he leaves incomparably better informed about the environment than he found it.

Nowhere else in the world was there anyone of his age and calibre still serving in public life — except, of course, for his beloved wife herself. And Elizabeth II could not have become one

of the greatest of our Queens without this heroic husband at her side. For more than seventy years, Prince Philip has been not only the Queen’s Consort, but the nation’s companion, too. We

shall miss his reassuring presence at countless public events, his mischievous sense of humour and his inexhaustible energy.  His place in our hearts was assured, but the position of a

Prince Consort is never easy and not always comfortable. Nor was Philip’s role one that he found ready-made: he had to remake it for himself, reconciling his constantly evolving position in

national life with what the establishment, the press and the public expected of him. His was a long life, just shy of a century, lived under relentless scrutiny and frequent criticism, much

of it unfair. He was fortunate to have lived long enough to see the customs and values he inherited transformed beyond recognition, yet also to be judged by the exacting standards of much

younger generations than his own. The vicissitudes of the Royal Family were often laid at his door and he was blamed not only for his notorious (but actually quite rare) gaffes but also for

sins of omission as a father. Yet the Duke never complained; indeed, he would have seen any concession to self-pity as an unforgivable dereliction of duty. It was right that the Prime

Minister mentioned Prince Philip’s wartime career, which was remarkable. He served as a sub-lieutenant on the battleship HMS _Valiant _at the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941, in which he

distinguished himself and was mentioned in dispatches. This was one of the Royal Navy’s greatest victories in World War Two: together with her sister ships _Warspite _and _Ramillies,_

_Valiant _destroyed two Italian heavy cruisers in less than five minutes, to be followed by a third, along with two destroyers; the battleship _Vittorio Veneto, _though damaged,_ _escaped.

Two years later, during the invasion of Sicily, Philip (by now First Lieutenant) saved his ship, the destroyer HMS _Wallace_, from a night bombing raid by launching a raft, using smoke

floats as a decoy. After serving in the Pacific War on another destroyer, HMS _Whelp, _he was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese Foreign Minister surrendered on board the USS _Missouri.

_The Duke lived to be one of the last British servicemen not only to have seen action in the Second World War, but to have witnessed its end.  Now we too bear witness to a life well lived,

in the service of his family and his country. His old-fashioned qualities may be rarer now than they once were, but we shall miss them all the more. The Duke of Edinburgh was of a generation

that took nothing for granted, but by the end of his life he was so much part of our mental furniture that his absence will feel quite disorienting. For the Queen, he was quite simply her

rock. For the country, he was a symbol of all that once made us proud to be British. Prince Philip did his best to pass on his values and his virtues to succeeding generations, including his

own family. If ever we wonder what the Monarchy is all about, we should spare a thought for this extraordinary man, married to an even more extraordinary woman. Their greatest achievement

is to have rendered the institution to which they have given a lifetime’s service more indispensable than it has ever been. The Duke is dead. God save the Queen! A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE

_We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue

publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation._