My Lords, like other noble Lords I extend my sympathy to Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family and pay tribute to the remarkable life and work of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
We are all familiar with Her Majesty’s own words that Prince Philip was her “strength and stay”, and who could not be amazed by the way he stood for hours on the royal barge in the cold and rain during the jubilee in what must have been difficult personal circumstances; a symbolic act that perhaps showed his dedication, stamina and fortitude to do whatever it took in the difficult and enduring role of consort to the Queen. Sir John Major said in an interview that the role of the monarch can be a lonely position, and the Duke was there as confidant and first line of support. Many of us will also recognise that an ever-present supporting role can have its own bleak moments, but he just got on with it.
The Duke had an inquiring mind and, as several noble Lords have noted, took a keen interest in science and technology. In the early 1950s, he took up the role of president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for which he penned an
impressive inaugural speech. That scientific interest was also shown during the Duke’s first royal visit after his overseas tour when, in 1957, he accompanied the Queen on a visit to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, where I was brought up. My father was among the leading engineers conducting the Queen and the Duke around the site. At the time, I was a child at the on-site nursery school, lining up to wave a flag as the royal party passed by, and, so the anecdote goes, was patted on the cheek by Her Majesty—but afterwards I remembered more about her amazing red velvet coat, which I tried to touch but which her Majesty adroitly swayed out of my reach.
The anecdotes I was brought up on also tell that, while the Queen was guided around the carefully arranged path of exhibits and official explanations, Prince Philip wandered more widely, asking detailed questions, showing both knowledge and curiosity. My family still has photographs of that occasion; while the Queen is the main focus, there is no mistaking the Duke in the background, in animated conversation with engineers and technicians, or heading off-piste from the tour route. Part of the tour included showing the laboratory’s remote mechanical handling apparatus for manipulating radioactive materials. The party trick of the operator was to open a box of matches, strike a match and light a candle—all quite a tricky operation with the remote handling apparatus—and, of course, the Duke stepped up to have a go, putting his hands in the operator’s metal skeleton gloves. That was in 1957, but I remember that party trick, as well as trying to do it myself when I was a vacation student some 15 years later, and being told, as was still remembered then, that the Duke had done rather well at it.
Like many, I admired the Duke’s recognition of the risk to sustainability in the natural world, long before it was fashionable, and I saw how the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme transformed the confidence, life chances and achievements of several people I knew. He has made a positive difference in many ways to causes, individuals, the country, the Commonwealth and his family. The more we learn, the more we appreciate how much he deserves an honoured place in history and in our memory.
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