Prince Phillip The End of an Era

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By Anupama Nair

Mumbai, April 12

His Royal highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (June 10,1921—April 9, 2021) breathed his last, just two months before his century year leaving behind a legacy, 73-year-old marriage with Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty the Queen said on the 50th Anniversary of her marriage “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years”. Their marriage was to become the longest of any British monarch. He was fondly called as Lord Mountbatten.

 Prince Phillip was also the Prince of Greece and Denmark. He was born in Greece and passed away in Windsor Castle, United Kingdom.

Prince Philip’s father was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. His mother was Princess Alice who was the eldest daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten (the last viceroy of British India). Prince Phillip was raised in Great Britain as his family was exiled from Greece, when he was only eighteen months old. He was educated at Gordonstoun School, Moray, Scotland, and at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England. he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, when he was just eighteen. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the thirteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, whom he had first met in 1934. During the Second World War (1939-1945) he served with distinction in the Mediterranean and Pacific Fleets.

In 1947, Prince Philip became a British national, rejecting his right to the Greek and Danish thrones and took his mother’s surname, Mountbatten. After the war, Philip was granted permission by the then monarch King George VI to marry Princess Elizabeth. He married Princess  Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. Just before the Royal wedding, he was granted the tile, His Royal Highness and made Duke of Edinburg. Prince Philip and Elizabeth were married in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, which was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio to 200 million people across the globe. Prince Philip retired from military service when Elizabeth became the Queen in 1952, He was ranked a commander. He had four children with Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles (Prince of Wales),  Princess Anne (Princess Royal), Prince Andrew (Duke of York) and Prince Edward (Earl of Wessex). In 1960, the four children got the tile Mountbatten-Windsor.

As a sports enthusiast, he helped develop the equestrian event of carriage driving. He was a patron, president and member of over 780 organizations, across the world. He served as chairman of the Duke of Edinburg’s Award, a self-improvement program for youth aged 14 to 24. He retired from his royal duties on 2nd August 2017, aged 96, having completed 22,219 solo engagements and 5,493 speeches since 1952

 He was the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch and the longest-living male member of the British royal family. He was not enthusiastic about living an extremely long life, remarking in an interview when he was 79, that he could not "imagine anything worse" and had "no desire whatsoever" to become a centenarian, saying "bits of me are falling off already".

Prince Philip was a patron of some 800 organizations, particularly focused on the environment, industry, sports, and education. He was president of the National Playing Fields Association (now known as Fields in Trust) for 64 years, from 1947 until his grandson Prince William took over the role in 2013. He served as UK president of the World Wildlife Fund from 1961 to 1982, international president from 1981, and president emeritus from 1996.  In 2017, the British Heart Foundation thanked Prince Philip for being its patron for 55 years, when in addition to organizing fundraisers, he "supported the creation of nine BHF-funded centers of excellence". 

In 2008, Prince Philip was admitted to King Edward’s Hospital, London, for a chest infection, he walked into the hospital unaided, recovered quickly, and was discharged three days later. In June 2011, in an interview marking his 90th birthday, he said that he would now slow down and reduce his duties, stating that he had "done his bit". In December 2011, the Duke suffered chest pains and was taken to the cardio-thoracic unit at Papworth Hospital, where he underwent successful coronary angioplasty and stenting. He was discharged soon.

On 9th January 2021, Philip and the Queen were vaccinated against Corona by a household doctor at Windsor Castle. On 16th February 2021, Philip was admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital as a "precautionary measure" after feeling ill. He was visited by Prince Charles in the hospital in February. In the month of March, Prince Philip was transferred by ambulance to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, to continue treatment for an infection, and additionally to undergo "testing and observation" relating to a pre-existing heart condition. He underwent a successful procedure for his heart condition and was transferred back to King Edward VII's Hospital on 5th March. He was discharged on 16th March. He died on 9th April 2021. The cause of his death is still unknown.

Prince Phillip made three memorable Royal visits to India in his long years of accompanying the 94-year-old monarch during her long rule. He along with the Queen visited India in 1961, 1983 and 1997 – during which he made quite an impression with his sense of humor, which often also got him into some controversy. During his 1961 visit to India, he was pictured with the Queen and the Maharaja and Maharani of Jaipur with a dead eight-foot tiger he had shot while on a hunting mission. He also shot a crocodile and mountain sheep on that trip but it was the photograph of the tiger that caused ripples around the world. During Prince Philip's last visit to India to mark the 50th anniversary of independence in 1997, he joined the Queen on a visit to Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, where the Royals laid a commemorative wreath at the site associated with General Dyer's orders to open fire on a large Baisakhi gathering in April 1919.

Prince Phillip’s death was an end of an era as he witnessed the “disintegration of the great empire where the sun never sets”. May his soul Rest in Peace.
 

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