Hamilton Grey Power December 2017

The Duke
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Living to 96 before retiring has been an
achievement while walking behind your wife
for 70 Years.
Who am I talking
about? If
you haven’t
guessed, it is Prince Philip
Duke of Edinburgh. So a
short story of his unusual
life deserves a mention
this quarter.
Prince Philip was born
on June 10 1921 at Mon Repos,
Corfu in Greece. And
his title was Prince Philip
of Greece and Denmark.
His father was Prince Andrew
of Greece and Denmark
and his mother was
Princess Alice of Battenberg.
His great great
grandmother was Queen
Victoria. He married his
third cousin Princess Elizabeth
(the current Queen
Elizabeth) on November
20 1947 at Westminster
Abbey, London.
He was educated in
France, Germany and
the United Kingdom and
joined the British Navy in
1939 at age 18 years. During
the 2nd World War he
served with the Mediterranean
and Pacific fleets.
He speaks English, German
and French but not
Danish or Greek which is
surprising? His father’s
neutrality policy was unacceptable
and he was
made to abdicate twice
and on the second time in
1922 forced into exile with
his family when Philip was
still a baby.
Before the announcement
of his engagement
to Princess Elizabeth in
July 1947, Philip abandoned
his Greek and Danish
royal titles and became
a naturalised British subject,
adopting the surname
‘Mountbatten’ from
his maternal grandparents.
Just before his wedding
in 1947 he was created
Baron Greenwich, Earl
of Merioneth and Duke of
Edinburgh by King George
the 6th. When Elizabeth
became Queen in 1952 he
left active military service,
having reached the rank
of commander and was
formally made a British
prince in 1957. Why was
he not made King Philip?
Because under British law
at the time, the women
automatically took on the
feminine version of their
husband’s titles, but the
same is not true for the
men, as with Prince Albert
and Queen Victoria.
Philip has always been
a keen sailor and sportsman
and he developed
the equestrian event of
‘carriage driving’. When
younger he played Polo
which he only gave up at
age 50 to commence with
‘carriage driving’ and to
this day can be seen behind
the reins of a horse
carriage in the grounds of
Windsor Great Park.
Other than a few medical
scares in the last few
years the Duke has kept to
a strict health regime. He
exercises regularly, eats
a moderate diet and has
huge willpower. His main
exercise is called the 5BX
plan which was designed
to improve the fitness of
recruits for the Royal Canadian
Air Force. It can be
carried out in a restricted
space, with no warm up or
equipment required, using
five basic exercises to
strengthen every muscle
in the body.
He is patron, president
or a member of more than
780 organisations but one
of his greatest achievements
was the introduction
of The Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award. This encourages
young people, regardless
of cultural, ethnic and socio-economic
background
to participate in exciting,
flexible and individually
tailored programmes, to
build skills, identity and
self- esteem. To be the
best they can regardless
of what life throws them.
The award was started in
Britain in 1956 for children
over the age of 14. With
the encouragement from
Lord Porritt and Sir Edmund
Hillary it became
known as the ‘The Duke of
Edinburgh Hillary Award’
in July 1963.
This award has been established
in more than 140
countries world- wide and
there are approximately
9000 registrations to the
different award level annually.
In New Zealand there
are currently 18,516 young
people involved in award
activities.
To work tirelessly until
you are 96 is a great
achievement in itself for
any one person and I think
we should just say “Well
done Duke of Edinburgh
you deserve your retirement
at last” regardless of
whether we are royalists
or not.
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Hamilton greypower Magazine – December 2017 25