A similar posting regarding Prince Charles can be found here.
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| The Queen and Prince Philip on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. |
About a month ago, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
was seen with the Queen and Prince Charles attending the Highland Games at the annual
Braemar Gathering. The site at which the games are held is a short drive from
the royal family’s private summer estate at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, and members of the royal family have attended them regularly since
the reign of Queen Victoria. The British monarch is chieftain of the games as
patron of the Braemar Royal Highland Society, and the games are considered a
highlight of the Scottish summer holiday for the Queen and her family. The Duke appeared to be well and looked sprightly
for a man who had just turned 92 in June, but there are concerns that his age
and health have been catching up with him over the last couple of years.
He was hospitalized during the Christmas holiday of
2011 at the family's winter estate of Sandringham in Norfolk, England after suffering from chest pains, and
underwent a successful coronary angioplasty and stenting. During the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee last
year, he was hospitalized for a bladder infection, which
may have resulted from him standing on the royal barge during the Thames River
Pageant for over four straight hours in the cold and rain. The infection
reoccurred during the summer holiday at Balmoral, and he was hospitalized again
as a precautionary measure. On June 6th of this year, after having attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace and just days after commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, he admitted
himself to the London Clinic for what Buckingham Palace called a pre-planned
“exploratory surgery” in his abdominal region. He spent eleven days there, celebrating his 92nd birthday and missing the Trooping the Colour
ceremony for the Queen’s Official Birthday. Philip was then discharged from the
clinic to recuperate, first at Windsor Castle and then at Sandringham. During
that period, his third great-grandchild (and first great-grandson) Prince
George was born. Given these recent health issues at his age, there have been
suggestions that perhaps Philip should reduce his public activities and
engagements.
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| The Queen and Prince Philip leaving the royal barge after having stood on it for over four hours during the Thames River Pageant on June 3, 2012. |
In a 2011 interview commemorating his 90th
birthday, the Duke of Edinburgh stated that he was going to begin to slow down
and cut back on royal obligations, saying that he felt he done his bit.
Nevertheless, he carried out 347 engagements during the Diamond Jubilee year in
2012 – up from 330 in 2011. If nothing else, this demonstrates his commitment
and determination to being at his wife’s side as much as possible, to fulfill
his duty as her consort, and pursue his own interests and passions. He is now
the longest-serving and oldest-ever spouse of a reigning British monarch and it
is expected that Philip will continue to do what he can to support the work of
the monarchy.
He may have health issues to deal with, but at 92, he his getting around as good – if not better – as anybody at that age, and he would probably be the first to say that nobody ought to be making a fuss over his health. Like most things in his life – such as being constantly moved around Europe throughout his childhood and not having a permanent home life – Philip shrugs off such concerns in part because he realizes that life is life and that there are certain things that are out of one’s hands. Therefore, one ought not to worry about it and carry on as usual, which is what Philip has done after his recent health scares.
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He may have health issues to deal with, but at 92, he his getting around as good – if not better – as anybody at that age, and he would probably be the first to say that nobody ought to be making a fuss over his health. Like most things in his life – such as being constantly moved around Europe throughout his childhood and not having a permanent home life – Philip shrugs off such concerns in part because he realizes that life is life and that there are certain things that are out of one’s hands. Therefore, one ought not to worry about it and carry on as usual, which is what Philip has done after his recent health scares.
Before joining the Queen at Balmoral in early August,
he honored a long-standing engagement to attend a meeting of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh – an organization of which he is a patron and honorary fellow –
and presented medals to new members. At the end of September, he left the
Highlands and returned to Norfolk to visit the Dersingham Bog Natural Nature
Reserve on the royal family’s Sandringham estate to inspect that restoration
work being done by the 100,000 strong Conservation Volunteers – an organization
of which the Duke is patron. According to the Telegraph, the reserve covers more than 400 acres of the largest
and most intact example of an acid valley mire, or bog in East Anglia. On that
day, he carried a walking stick, though royal aides were quick to insist that
he carried it only because of the nature of the terrain, and that he does not
normally use it.
Sure enough, on his next public engagement – a tour of St. Michael’s Care Complex in Aylsham – he walked unaided. Aylsham is a market town in Norfolk, and during the tour of the recently-opened £4 million complex, he spotted the great-granddaughter of a resident on a large inflatable ball and jokingly asked, “Do you get bonus points if you knock her off?” In many ways, this shows the Philip is not only back to his usual routine of attending engagements, but also displaying the dry humor which has become somewhat legendary over the 61 years he has been the Queen’s consort. While there, he received a cotton quilt containing printed advice for Prince George, whom Philip had met while at Balmoral. And with his return to health, it has been announced that the Duke of Edinburgh will have 13 engagements this month, mostly at Buckingham Palace, and a source has said that having “completely recovered” from the operation in June, he is now back to “business as usual.”
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| The Duke sharing a joke with British trade diplomat Colin Evans, who was a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. |
Sure enough, on his next public engagement – a tour of St. Michael’s Care Complex in Aylsham – he walked unaided. Aylsham is a market town in Norfolk, and during the tour of the recently-opened £4 million complex, he spotted the great-granddaughter of a resident on a large inflatable ball and jokingly asked, “Do you get bonus points if you knock her off?” In many ways, this shows the Philip is not only back to his usual routine of attending engagements, but also displaying the dry humor which has become somewhat legendary over the 61 years he has been the Queen’s consort. While there, he received a cotton quilt containing printed advice for Prince George, whom Philip had met while at Balmoral. And with his return to health, it has been announced that the Duke of Edinburgh will have 13 engagements this month, mostly at Buckingham Palace, and a source has said that having “completely recovered” from the operation in June, he is now back to “business as usual.”
It is hoped that he will continue to get better and
continue to participate in royal engagements. He is, in my opinion, one of the
monarchy’s most invaluable assets, and is the Queen’s essential partner and
companion. In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr last year, Prince Harry
said that he did not believe that the Queen could have carried on through the last
six decades without Philip. His absence from the Diamond Jubilee Service of
Thanksgiving last year was especially felt, as the Queen walked down the aisle
of St. Paul’s Cathedral alone. If anything, they now need each other more than ever. Hopefully, the Duke will have many more years
ahead of him with good health, so that he may remain the “strength and stay” of
the Queen.
Photo Credit: Carfax2 via Wikimedia Commons cc, Ninian Reid via Flickr cc, Jamie McCaffrey via Flickr cc
Photo Credit: Carfax2 via Wikimedia Commons cc, Ninian Reid via Flickr cc, Jamie McCaffrey via Flickr cc
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