Ducal ties

The death of HRH Prince Philip was unexpected given his recent apparent recovery. However, as I know from my mother’s passing also at the age of 99 deterioration can set in quickly.

Just like my mother the Duke has been a presence, albeit a very distant one, all my life.

But I did met him briefly twice. Once in 1973 on receipt of my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award where he asked where we had done our expedition. The tie on the right is for the DofE award.

The second time was at Buckingham Palace in 2010 when my team was nominated for (but did not win) in the UK Civil Service Awards in the section on collaboration. For the first time the awards were being held in Buckingham Palace hosted by Her Majesty. We had a brief conversation with the Queen during the reception. When being introduced in the line up beforehand the Duke took one look at my tie (on the right) and asked what regiment that was. Part of his style of a few seconds comment to relax one.

The final link is the fact that he was the Grand Master of the Order of the British Empire. He was the third holder of the office since it was founded in 1917. The Duke had retired from public duties when I received my OBE when the honours were done by the Earl of Strathearn (though technically as that event was also at Buckingham Palace his title there was the Duke of Cambridge). While the Queen’s signature it at the top right of the award document, The Duke of Edinburgh’s is at the bottom.

While the media goes into overdrive, my thoughts are of the person who has passed away, the loss of a lifetime’s companion to the Queen and the passing of a family member. To them he has always been around.