I am going to carry on right where the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle) left off, because there is a reason why His Royal Highness The Prince Philip was popular with the military, and that is for any of us who have sat at the top table at a military dinner and wished that we were down with our mates in the cheap seats, with the cheap wine: he brought life to the dinner and made the whole thing rather more fun than it would otherwise have been. I am going to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Adam Holloway) in not telling the stories that His Royal Highness told, because I think they would make Hansard blush.
Although His Royal Highness gave entertainment to the wardroom, and indeed to the mess table, he was also a very diligent colonel—and I speak, although I am one of two here, on behalf of the Intelligence Corps, whose royal colonel he was. He was always very astute in keeping an eye on what the Corps was up to, and asking us in great detail what we were doing. One colleague once asked him why we were not the royal Intelligence Corps. His answer was quite simple: “Because you bastards aren’t gentlemen.” I thought it was entirely fair.
The chances that he had in his early life to go awry, to become a wastrel, or a gambling prince in Monaco, or something similar, were huge. Instead, we saw a life of service and of duty. That is quite something.
When I go around the world, in person or now on video, one of the things that strikes me is how many people remember visits by our royal family. Today, although we are of course remembering the Duke of Edinburgh, I wish to pay tribute to the whole family that he led, and to say thank you to all of them. I have been to schools in Pakistan and to sites in Chile that have a plaque with his name on it, or that of another member of the royal family. That connection is an integral part of our country’s strength in bringing people together and promoting the values that we so champion.
We often celebrate our Foreign Office and praise the work of our diplomats, but today I would like to praise the work of one diplomat who has finally left service, but not until he really had done his duty. He exemplified an entire generation and an entire ethos, and for that I am eternally grateful. I offer my best wishes and condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the entire family.
6.28 pm