How a South Pacific island came to worship Prince Philip as their 'true messiah' There will be few places where the Duke's loss will be felt as keenly as the island of Tanna where they prayed to him every day 18 April 2021 • 6:00am The people of Tanna have worshipped the Duke since the Sixties Credit: Richard Shears / Rex Features The Duke of Edinburgh may have garnered numerous illustrious titles over his decades of service, but to a tribe on the South Pacific island of Tanna he was only ever known – and worshipped – as “The Big Man”. For most of his public life, Prince Philip has been regarded as a living deity by a tribe living on the tiny volcanic island which is part of the Vanuatu archipelago. According to local legend, the pale-skinned son of a mountain god once ventured far away across the ocean to marry a powerful woman. In the Sixties, when Vanuatu was an Anglo-French colony known as the New Hebrides, it is believed that tribesmen would have set eyes on a portrait of Prince Philip alongside the Queen (whom he had married in 1947) hanging in various official buildings – and decided that this handsome young man in the Naval uniform was the very same ancestor of their god.