Philip s regard for German cousins who were kept out of public eye for years
German relatives helped shape Duke s life but were judged too controversial for postwar British public
10 April 2021 • 1:30pm
Prince Philip and the Queen on their final visit to Germany in 2015
Credit: Ian Jones Retained/IJO
For decades Prince Philip had to keep his relationship with his German relatives out of the public eye, but in his final years he was able to be seen in public with his cousins, with whom he had privately always been close.
When he and the Queen came to Germany for the last time together six years ago, they were entertained at a formal dinner with his cousins in Frankfurt. Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse and a distant cousin, breezily told the British press, “Usually I see them in England at Windsor, so it’s lovely to see them over here.”
THE death of the Duke of Edinburgh marks not only the passing of a long-life well-lived but also a link to a past which is fast receding into history. HRH Prince Philip has not only been the longest-serving consort but began his role at the side of Queen Elizabeth at a time when world leaders in office included Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Konrad Adenauer. Born into the Greek and Danish royal families in 1921, he grew up in a household speaking English, French and German. Educated at Salem School in Germany, he followed its Jewish founder Kurt Hahn to Scotland following the Nazi takeover and attended Hahn’s new school at Gordonstoun, near Elgin, in Moray.
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Prince Philip devoted his position and prestige to dozens of Australian charities and organisations during his lifetime, visiting the Commonwealth nation more than any other member of the royal family.
After travelling to Australia twice during World War II, the Duke of Edinburgh escorted the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II on her introductory tour of the country in 1954.
It was the first visit by a reigning monarch, and the royal couple received a rapturous welcome in every major city.
However, in the shadow of a Queen, a consort has to find many ways to be useful.
Prince Philip was a restless pragmatist with an extraordinary range of interests
From helping young people become valuable members of society, to being a champion for nature, the Duke was committed to improving the world
The Duke was a man of striking contrasts
Credit: PA
Prince Philip was a man ahead of his time. From the early 1950s, he addressed issues that are now at the forefront of international politics, but which back then were often dismissed as off-beat and even irrelevant.
This could be frustrating. In the case of the environment, he could see what needed to be done and felt he had to bang his message into people whose heads were firmly in the sand. In 1968, more than 50 years ago, he wrote that in man’s long history he had struggled to survive in a hostile environment, but that now “the earth and the whole natural environment in which we live is on the defensive against mankind’s ruthless exploitation”. Man was exploiting his environment “like a man killing
Max Mumby/IndigoGetty Images
In an interview with ITV that was prerecorded to be broadcast after the Duke of Edinburgh s death, two of his four children, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, opened up about their late father s legacy. During the interview, Princess Anne, 70, spoke of the loss, saying that, without Prince Philip around, life will be completely different.
Princess Anne, the second eldest child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and the couple s only daughter, discussed her father s nomadic childhood and the impact his early experiences at his boarding school, Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland, had on shaping the man he grew to be.