1987
Patron, British Trust for Ornithology
1989
President, British Sports Trust
1991
President, Royal Windsor Horse Show
1992–7
Chairman, Restoration Committee following Windsor Castle Fire
1997
Last flight on 11 August – Carlisle to Islay in BAe 146 after 5,986 hours in fifty-nine types including nine helicopters
Prizes and Medals Donated by the Duke of Edinburgh
1949–
Edinburgh Cup for Yachts of the International Dragon Class
1955–
‘Royal Windsor Cup’ for Ascot Week Polo Tournament
1957–
Prince Philip Cup for Isle of Wight inter-club racing
1957–
Prince Philip Cup for Pony Club Mounted Games
1959–
Prince Philip Designer’s Prize for the Designer of the Year
1961–
Silver Wink for Inter-University Tiddlywinks Championships
1962
Coweslip Trophy for Championships held by the Australian Flying Fifteen Association
1962–
Prince Philip Medal for outstanding achievement in work with Science or Technology, City and Guilds of London Institute
1962–
Silver collar for Greyhound Racing
1962–
Grand Master’s Medal, Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators
1963–
Bagpiping trophy for the Pakistan Army
1963–
President’s Prize for Design Management, Royal Society of Arts
1964–
Prince Philip Challenge Cup for coxed fours, Henley Regatta
1972–
Trophy for World Individual Team Driving Champion
1991–
Duke of Edinburgh’s Trophy for the Royal Windsor Horse Show
1993–
Prince Philip Cup for Modern Horse-drawn Machinery
1997–
Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal, World Wide Fund for Nature
Houses and Gardens
Buckingham Palace
1962
Conversion of chapel to the Queen’s Gallery
Windsor
South slopes, moved road and laid out border and beds
East terrace beds and fountain
‘Coronation’ Oak Avenue from Golf Course Cottage
‘Hurricane’ Lime Avenue
‘Grenadier’ Avenue
Budgerigars and pigeons
Queen Anne’s Ride – replanting
Balmoral
North side, fountain court, kitchen garden, water garden, ‘heath’ beds
Oak bank
Log cabin, conversation of Gelder Shiel and Inchnabobart
Demolition of dry-rotten Victorian addition to Abergeldie Castle
Birkhall
Replacement of the ‘tin wing’
Sandringham
Wood Farm – conversion
Coronation Lime Avenue from Appleton to Gatton Water
Copper Beach Avenue – Norwich Gates, Dersingham Hill
Game coverts, marsh ‘sanctuary’, new hedgerows
Construction of the two log cabins
Conversion of new lunch room
Collections
Books on carriage-driving
Bird books
Pictures of birds and animals
Coach and carriage driving books
Contemporary Scottish pictures (mostly at Holyrood)
Contemporary watercolours
Sixty oil paintings by Edward Seago from World Tour 1956–7
Competition carriage-driving scrapbooks and videos
Photographs – 150 albums of Minox from foreign visits 100 albums of conventional photographs
Books
1957
Selected Speeches – 1948–55
1960
Selected Speeches – 1956–59
1962
Birds from Britannia; American edition, Seabirds from Southern Waters
1970
Wildlife Crisis (with James Fisher)
1978
The Environmental Revolution – Speeches on Conservation 1962–1977
1982
Competition Carriage Driving, French edition 1984, second edition 1984
1982
A Question of Balance
1984
Men, Machines and Sacred Cows
1984
A Windsor Correspondence (with Michael Mann)
1988
Down to Earth – Collected Writings and Speeches on Man and the Natural World, 1961–87, paperback edition 1989, Japanese edition 1992
1989
Survival or Extinction: A Christian Attitude to the Environment (with Michael Mann)
1994
Competition Carriage Driving, revised edition
1996
Driving and Judging Dressage
2004
Thirty Years On, and Off, the Box Seat
Service Appointments Held by the Duke of Edinburgh between 1952 and 2017
1952–92
Admiral, Sea Cadet Corps
1953
Admiral of the Fleet (15/1/53)
Field Marshal (15/1/53)
Marshal of the Royal Air Force (15/1/53)
Captain-General, Royal Marines (1/6/53)
Colonel-in-Chief
The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders until February 1961
The Queen’s Own Highlanders (Seaforths and Camerons) until September 1994
The Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) from September 1994
Colonel-in-Chief
The Wiltshire Regiment until June 1959
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) until 1994
The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment from April 1994
Colonel-in-Chief
The 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars until October 1958
The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars until September 1993
Deputy Colonel-in-Chief from September, 1993 and Colonel-in-Chief from 2002
The Queen’s Royal Hussars (The Queen’s Own and Royal Irish)
Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Canadian Regiment
Air Commodore-in-Chief, Air Training Corps (15/1/53)
Colonel-in-Chief, Army Cadet Force (15/1/53)
Air Commodore-in-Chief, Royal Canadian Air Cadets
Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Canadian Army Cadets
Admiral, Royal Canadian Sea Cadets (15/1/53)
Royal Hon. Colonel, University of Edinburgh and Heriot Watt
Officer Training Corps and from 1994 City of Edinburgh
Universities Officers’ Training Corps
1953–75
Colonel, Welsh Guards
1954
Field Marshal, Australian Military Forces (1/4/54)
Marshal, Royal Australian Air Force (1/4/54)
Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Australian Navy (1/4/54)
Extra Master, Merchant Navy
1957
Member, Honourable Artillery Company
1958
Admiral of the Fleet, Royal New Zealand Navy (21/4) (seniority backdated to 15/1/53)
Colonel-in-Chief, the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars (see above)
1959
Colonel-in-Chief, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) (see above)
Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Australian Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
1961
Colonel-in-Chief, The Queen’s Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons) (see above)
1963
Colonel-in-Chief, Australian Cadet Corps
Family Trees
The British Royal Family: A select family tree (I)
The British Royal Family: A select family tree (II)
The Greek Royal Family: A select family tree
Th
e Battenbergs and Mountbattens: A select family tree
Sources and Acknowledgements
I hope this book is accurate. It has been informed by my encounters – some brief, some extended – with all of the principal characters in the story. It has also been informed by my reading of the work of a range of royal biographers and historians to whom I am indebted, most notably my friend Hugo Vickers, whose meticulously researched authorised biography of Prince Philip’s mother, Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece (2000), I have drawn on extensively. The family trees of the Greek royal family and of the Battenbergs were kindly prepared by Hugo Vickers.
Many people have been involved in the creation of this book. I want especially to thank my literary agent, the late Ed Victor, for suggesting it, and my publisher, Mark Booth, for making it happen.
I began work on the first version of this book more than a decade ago. I remain grateful to the Queen’s private secretary at the time, Sir Robin Janvrin, and Her Majesty’s then press secretary, Penny Russell-Smith, for their kindness and for enabling me to spend time with the Queen as she went about her royal duties. I am grateful to the Duke of Edinburgh’s final private secretary, Brigadier Archie Miller-Bakewell, and to his predecessors, Sir Miles Hunt-Davis and Sir Brian McGrath, as well as His Royal Highness’s librarian and archivist, Dame Anne Griffiths, for their kindness and practical assistance over several years. Prince Philip generously gave me permission for the use of his family photographs and I am also indebted to the Queen for the use of photographs from the Royal Collection, notably pictures from her grandmother, Queen Mary’s, photograph albums.
Below I have listed the principal conversations and books I have relied on for each chapter. Of course, the blame for any errors of commission or omission should be laid at my door and no one else’s.
Chapters 1 and 2
Conversations with Prince Philip, the Queen of Denmark, King Constantine of Greece, Brett Kahr, Lady Kennard, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Hugo Vickers
Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers, 2000
An Appreciation of Kurt Hahn, with a foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, 1975
Cheam School from 1645 by Edward Peel, with a foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, 1974
The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip by Tim Heald, 1991
Elizabeth: Grand Duchess of Russia by Hugo Mager, 1998
Hessian Tapestry by David Duff, 1967
Ionian Vision by Michael Llewellyn Smith, 1973
Lillie Langtry: Manners, Masks and Morals by Laura Beatty, 1999
Marie Bonaparte by Celia Bertin, 1982
Memoirs 1849–1897 by Prince von Bülow, 1931
Mountbatten by Philip Ziegler, 1985
Prince Philip: A Family Portrait by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, 1959
Queen Victoria’s Relations by Meriel Buchanan, 1954
The Royal House of Windsor by Elizabeth Longford, 1974
Schoolmaster of Kings – Donald MacJannet: 65 Years as an International Educator by Howard Jacobs, 1982
Towards Disaster by Prince Andrew of Greece, 1930
Chapters 3 and 4
Conversations with Prince Philip, Sonia Berry, Lord David Cecil, Lady Longford, Sir John Mills, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Nigel Nicolson, Graham Payn, the Hon. Margaret Rhodes, Lord Snowdon, Woodrow Wyatt
Among the Bohemians by Virginia Nicholson, 2002
The Asquiths by Colin Clifford, 2002
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, edited by Robert Rhodes James, 1967
Dearest Child: Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia, 1858–61, edited by Roger Fulford, 1964
Edward VII by Christopher Hibbert, 1976
Elizabeth by Sarah Bradford, 1996
Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Grania Forbes, 2002
George VI by Sarah Bradford, 1989
Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1930–39, edited by Nigel Nicolson, 1966
A King’s Story by the Duke of Windsor, 1951
King Edward the Seventh by Philip Magnus, 1964
Kings, Queens and Courtiers by Kenneth Rose, 1986
Letters from a Prince: Edward Prince of Wales to Mrs Freda Dudley Ward, March 1918–January 1921, edited by Rupert Godfrey, 1999
The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford, 1950
The Lyttleton Hart-Davis Letters, Vol. III: Correspondence of George Lyttleton and Rupert Hart-Davis, 1979
A Moment’s Liberty: The Shorter Diary by Virginia Woolf, abridged and edited by Anne Olivier Bell, 1990
Queen Mary and Others by Osbert Sitwell, 1974
Recollections of Three Reigns by Frederick Ponsonby, 1951
Thatched with Gold by Mabell, Countess of Airlie, 1962
The Tongs and the Bones by the Earl of Harewood, 1981
The Wheel of Life: The Diary of Beatrice Webb, Vol. 4: 1924–43, edited by B. and J. Mackenzie, 1985
Victoria R.I. by Elizabeth Longford, 1964
Chapters 5 and 6
Conversations with Prince Philip, Sonia Berry, Professor Anthony Clare, Tim Heald, Elizabeth Longford, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, the Hon. Margaret Rhodes
Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers, 2000
Cabbages to Kings by Lisa Sheridan, 1955
The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip by Tim Heald, 1991
Elizabeth by Sarah Bradford, 1996
Elizabeth R by Elizabeth Longford, 1983
The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939–1955 by John Colville, 1985
George VI by Sarah Bradford, 1989
George VI: His Life and Reign by John Wheeler-Bennett, 1958
Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1930–39, edited by Nigel Nicolson, 1966
A Horseman through Six Reigns: Reminiscences of a Royal Riding Master by Horace Smith, 1955
It Wasn’t All Mayhem by Harry Hargreaves, 2004
John Buchan by Andrew Lownie, 1995
The Killearn Diaries, edited by Trefor Evans, 1972
The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford, 1950
Mountbatten by Philip Ziegler, 1985
The Noël Coward Diaries, edited by Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, 1982
Prince Philip: A Family Portrait by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, 1959
The Queen by Ben Pimlott, 1996
Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Robert Lacey, 2002
To Be a King: A Biography of HRH Prince Charles by Dermot Morrah, 1989
Wallis and Edward: Letters 1931–1937, edited by Michael Bloch, 1986
Chapters 7 and 8
Conversations with Prince Philip, Prince Edward, Larry Adler, Sonia Berry, Cherie Booth, Henry, 7th Earl of Carnarvon, Geordie, 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Robin Dalton, Sir Edward Ford, Michael Foot, Tim Heald, Lady Kennard, Sir Roderic Llewellyn, Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Lord Brabourne, Commander Mike Parker, the Hon. Margaret Rhodes
Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers, 2000
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, edited by Robert Rhodes James, 1967
Counting One’s Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, edited by William Shawcross, 2012
The Daily Telegraph Book of Military Obituaries by David Twiston Davies, 2003
The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip by Tim Heald, 1991
Elizabeth by Sarah Bradford, 1996
Elizabeth R by Elizabeth Longford, 1983
Footprints in Time by John Colville, 1976
Friends, Enemies and Sovereigns by Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, 1976
The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939–1955 by John Colville, 1985
Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1930–39, edited by Nigel Nicolson, 1966
A Horseman through Six Reigns: Reminiscences of a Royal Riding Master by Horace Smith, 1955
An Incidental Memoir by Robin Dalton, 1998
King George VI by Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, 1958
The Little Princesses by Marion Crawfo
rd, 1950
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, 1994
A Mingled Measure: Diaries 1953–1972 by James Lees-Milne, 1974
Mountbatten by Philip Ziegler, 1985
The Noël Coward Diaries, edited by Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, 1982
Philip: An Informal Biography by Basil Boothroyd, 1971
Prince Philip: A Family Portrait by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, 1959
The Queen by Ann Morrow, 1983
The Queen by Ben Pimlott, 1996
The Road to Station X by Sarah Baring, 2000
Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Robert Lacey, 2002
Silver Spoon by Richard Norton, 1954
Step Aside for Royalty by Eileen Parker, 1982
Time and Chance by Peter Townsend, 1978
To Be a King: A Biography of HRH Prince Charles by Dermot Morrah, 1989
Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life by Philip Eade, 2011
Wallis and Edward: Letters 1931–37, edited by Michael Bloch, 1986
Chapters 9 and 10
Conversations with Prince Philip, Sarah Bradford, Lord Charteris of Amisfield, Sir Edward Ford, John Gibson, Sir Robin Janvrin, Commander Mike Parker, the Hon. Margaret Rhodes
Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers, 2000
Charles by Anthony Holden, 1998
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, edited by Robert Rhodes James, 1967
Philip: The Final Portrait Page 53
