PRINCE PHILIP

Roots

I felt a little foolish. I was only partially dressed in a bikini and wobbling around on the sand doing a deep curtsey. Prince Philip had arrived to stay for a brief visit with my family who were holidaying in the Bahamas. He was on his way back from a working trip with the World Wildlife Fund.

Prince Philip was my mother’s first cousin, as well as my brother’s Godfather and I had been to Gordonstoun, his alma mater, which he approved of, but it wasn’t often we met on a beach, if at all.

My mother, on the other hand, had spent summers as a child with her cousin coming to stay. She says he was the inspiration behind all the naughty boisterous games they played, including vicious bicycle polo matches and hero worship blossomed during those innocent holidays.

Many years later, on his wedding day, my mother described the bridegroom as so dashing that it made you realize why every girl in England seemed to think she was in love with him. When the married couple appeared on the palace balcony the crowd began to sing ‘All the nice girls love a sailor’ Prince Philip gave the bridesmaids one of whom was my mother a silver powder compact, and all his own design, and each unique.

When in her twenties my mother was living in Malta, as her father was stationed there, Princess Elizabeth came to stay with them, to welcome Prince Philip back with the fleet. Together my mother and the Princess watched the magnificent sight of 50 ships coming into port in immaculate formation, firing a 21-gun salute. This was the only time Princess Elizabeth was able to live the life of a normal naval officer's wife. These were happy carefree days for the Prince and Princess. When the time came for her return to England my grandmother remarked that it was like putting a little bird back in its gilded cage.

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My mother spent more time with Prince Philip during both Commonwealth Tours, as she had been invited to join them as the Queen’s lady-in-waiting. At one-point onboard SS Gothic they all became addicted to deck croquet, the outcome of which depended on how much the ship was rolling and how recently the decks have been washed down, they played quite sedately but Prince Philip was having none of that, introducing instead deck hockey “minus rules”. By the time they reached Fiji there were four sprained ankles, four seriously crushed fingers and countless minor injuries but as Prince Philip always managed to come out quite unscathed the games continued until the day they came ashore.

It was hardly surprising then to learn that Prince Philip was enthusiastically setting about establishing his court for a ‘crossing the line’ ceremony, an initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator, appointing King Neptune, Queen Ariadne, as is the tradition. Two victims needed also to be appointed, my mother being one of them. She was accused of being late for breakfast, having a father for a Sealord and being a disturbing influence in the ship (never in her life has my mother been a disturbing influence!) the prosecutor made her sit in a chair, erected on a platform above the ship’s pool. She was given something to hold by Prince Philip as lather was slapped all over her. She was so busy squirming around to avoid the various horrors that it was some time before she realized she was holding an enormous wet fish, the greatest horror of all. Prince Philip said, “You don't mind going backwards, do you?” and all of a sudden tipped the chair flinging her backwards into the pool. My mother said it was actually enormous fun, but the Queen hated every minute of it because from where she was sitting it really did look as though she was going to be drowned.

When the tour resumed and with it the repetition of all the ceremonies, she remembers them feeling ludicrous climbing into long dress and tiara during broad daylight on their way for another opening of another parliament. At one moment during a grueling civic reception the formalities were lightened when a little dog came out of the crowd, leapt up the steps and when Prince Philip and the Queen stood during the presentations jumped up onto one of the vacant thrones and raised its paw to the crowd, as though acknowledging their cheers. Prince Philip burst out laughing. 

My mother tells me it was so clear to everyone that Prince Philip played an enormous part in the success of those Commonwealth Tours and indeed later, to the success of the Queen’s reign. “Because of his mix of teasing and humor, with unexpected kindness and thoughtfulness, it’s easy to see why he was so tremendously popular wherever he went” she says.