Prince Philip: One Year On
The milestones the Duke of Edinburgh missed in the past 12 months – and what he would have made of them
It’s been one year since Prince Philip passed away, on April 9, 2021. Aged 99, he left us just before the 100th birthday he said he never wanted. Much has happened in the past 12 months, from triumphs to tragedies, joy to despair. Here are some of the events he’s missed – and what we think he would have made of them.
His 100th birthday: Philip would have turned 100 on June 10, 2021, but passed away two months prior. We know his feelings on that – he famously said he “couldn’t imagine anything worse” than turning 100.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: Undoubtedly he would have been proud - he was in hospital during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 and the crowd chanted, “Philip, Philip!” moving the Queen to tears.
Prince Harry: He was reportedly distressed when Harry and Meghan left the Royal Family and we think he’d be heart-broken what’s happening now – especially when they were the only family members missing from his memorial.
Cop 26: “It is a source of great pride to me that the leading role my husband played in encouraging people to protect our fragile planet, lives on through the work of our eldest son Charles and his eldest son William. I could not be more proud of them,” the Queen said at the Cop 26 summit in November. The environment was an issue Philip campaigned on, so he would be very happy.
Prince Andrew: According to royal biographer Ingrid Seward, Philip had warned Andrew about mixing with the wrong people. “To see his son’s demise through his own stupidity, arrogance, and sense of self-entitlement reminded Philip why he used to lose his temper with Andrew in the first place and tell him what a fool he was,” she wrote.
Babies galore: Philip saw the arrival of babies August and Lucas last year, but missed baby Lilibet, named after the love of his life, followed by Sienna. Undoubtedly, he would have been delighted with his growing brood of great-grandchildren.
Caribbean dream ends: Despite his commitment to the Commonwealth and crown, Philip was also a practical man and more flexible than commentators sometimes credit. So we think he would have been open to Barbados becoming a republic last November and offered sage advice to William and Catherine after their tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas last month. His friend Gyles Brandreth wrote in The Telegraph, “he was intolerant of intolerance – and always open to change.”
The Queen’s moving tribute
To mark the one-year anniversary of his loss, the Queen posted this beautiful poem The Patriarchs – An Elegy, by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, on the Royal Family Instagram page.
The weather in the window this morning
is snow, unseasonal singular flakes,
a slow winter’s final shiver. On such an occasion
to presume to eulogise one man is to pipe up
for a whole generation - that crew whose survival
was always the stuff of minor miracle,
who came ashore in orange-crate coracles,
fought ingenious wars, finagled triumphs at sea
with flaming decoy boats, and side-stepped torpedoes.
Husbands to duty, they unrolled their plans
across billiard tables and vehicle bonnets, regrouped at
breakfast. What their secrets were was everyone’s guess and
nobody’s business. Great-grandfathers from birth, in time they
became both inner core and outer case
in a family heirloom of nesting dolls.
Like evidence of early man their boot-prints stand in the
hardened earth of rose-beds and borders.
They were sons of a zodiac out of sync
with the solar year, but turned their minds
to the day’s big science and heavy questions.
To study their hands at rest was to picture maps showing
hachured valleys and indigo streams, schemes of old campaigns
and reconnaissance missions.
Last of the great avuncular magicians
they kept their best tricks for the grand finale: Disproving
Immortality and Disappearing Entirely.
The major oaks in the wood start tuning up and skies to come
will deliver their tributes. But for now, a cold April’s closing
moments parachute slowly home, so by mid-afternoon snow is
recast as seed heads and thistledown.
Camilla gets lost in Austen
The Duchess of Cornwall visited a Royal List favourite destination this week, when she popped in to Jane Austen’s House in Hampshire.
The book-loving royal viewed a first-edition copy of Pride and Prejudice and Emma, in the house where the author spent her final years. She also checked out the white shirt Colin Firth wore in THAT 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which, in our humble opinion has never been beaten. “But he’s not in it, that’s a bit sad,” she joked.
Camilla revealed she would have Elizabeth Bennet on her dream dinner party list alongside some other excellent characters – check it out on the Reading Room.
Harry, be a hero and visit Granny
As Prince Harry prepares to launch his Invictus Games in the Netherlands this Saturday, will he find time to pop over and see his rellies? Kerry wrote an opinion piece for The Sunday Telegraph this week, saying, come on Harry, be a hero and visit your granny. Here’s an extract:
The long-postponed Invictus Games are taking place over Easter after been delayed by the pandemic for two years. So could it be a chance to resurrect his relationship with his family? Harry’s been Zooming in for team talks with Invictus competitors, joking around in a video call with British athletes, saying they had no excuses as they’d had two years to prepare.
But Harry’s out of excuses too, after missing Prince Philip’s memorial on March 29. It’s time to park the principles, let go the grievances and whiz over to Windsor, for a real Easter treat. It would be sweeter than any visit by the Easter bunny – especially if little Lilibet finally got to meet her namesake.
It would be the ideal opportunity to pave the way for a harmonious family holiday in the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June. How can he miss that? It’s a milestone no British monarch has ever reached before and extremely unlikely any of us will see one reach again. And it’s not actually our granny who is celebrating.
Harry is rightly the champion of Invictus heroes, who give their all to achieve against the odds, determined never to give in. And doesn’t that resilience also apply to the Queen? The woman is a wonder, still working, still focussed, still smiling as she faces her 96th birthday later this month. Reconciliation is only for the living; too late, it’s a lifetime of regret. So, go and see your granny, Harry – and your dad. Be the hero you are and the grandson and son they love.
More tea, vicar?
You know us at The Royal List, always on the look-out for an excuse for afternoon tea. The latest hotel to announce a Jubilee tea is one of our favourites – The Covent Garden Hotel. Its Royal Afternoon Tea includes a glass of bubbles or a Lilibet cocktail with a delicious selection of treats, including coronation chicken sandwiches, Pimm’s cheesecake and Victoria sponge. From £35 per person, to book, click here.