Phill the Greek always called a spade a spade, what a legend, last of the politically incorrect. RIP last of a generation.
Also pushed World Wide Fund for Nature in its early days far ahead of the time. His Duke of Edenborough Scheme for youth became a major force for good. I did a bit of that.
Did his best. I ,liked him. He had a hard early life but toughed it out and didn't let people down.
I think he got bored sometimes and so created a bit of excitement for himself.
The funniest story for me was when he was on the shuttle:
Britain's Prince Phillip has landed himself in hot water by telling a 13-year-old schoolboy that he is "too fat" to become an astronaut.
Andrew, who is 4ft 8in tall and weighs seven stone, met the Prince while he was inspecting the NOVA spacecraft.
According to reports the Prince asked Andrew about the spacecraft before saying: "Well, you'll never fly in it, you're too fat to be an astronaut."
Andrew, who wants to become an actor not an astronaut, said he was surprised by Prince Phillip's comments, adding: "I was bothered about what he had said. I was really cross. What gives him the right to be nasty to people just because he's married to the Queen?
"I don't think I'm fat, it's just that my dad is big and so are some of my family, but I eat well and play a lot of sport."
Britain's Prince Phillip has landed himself in hot water by telling a 13-year-old schoolboy that he is "too fat" to become an astronaut.
Here are some of Philip’s famous phrases (warning, some are offensive):
- “British women can’t cook” (in Britain in 1966).
- “What do you gargle with, pebbles?” (speaking to singer
Tom Jones after the 1969 Royal Variety Performance).
- “I declare this thing open, whatever it is.” (on a visit to
Canada in 1969).
- “Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed” (during the 1981 recession).
- “If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” (at a 1986
World Wildlife Fund meeting).
- “It looks like a tart’s bedroom.” (on seeing plans for the Duke and Duchess of York’s house at Sunninghill
Park in 1988)
- “Yak, yak, yak; come on get a move on.” (shouted from the deck of Britannia in
Belize in 1994 to the Queen who was chatting to her hosts on the quayside).
- “We didn’t have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking ‘Are you all right? Are you sure you don’t have a ghastly problem?’ You just got on with it.” (about the Second World War commenting on modern stress counselling for servicemen in 1995).
- “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?” (to a driving instructor in Oban,
Scotland, during a 1995 walkabout).
- “Bloody silly fool!” (in 1997, referring to a
Cambridge University car park attendant who did not recognise him).
- “It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.” (pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh in 1999).
- “Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.” (to young deaf people in
Cardiff, in 1999, referring to a school’s steel band).
- “They must be out of their minds.” (in the
Solomon Islands, in 1982, when he was told that the annual population growth was 5 per cent).
- “You are a woman, aren’t you?”(In
Kenya, in 1984, after accepting a small gift from a local woman).
- “If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” (to British students in
China, during the 1986 state visit).
- “Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species in the world.” (in
Thailand, in 1991, after accepting a conservation award).
- “Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.” (in
Australia, in 1992, when asked to stroke a koala).
- “You can’t have been here that long — you haven’t got a pot belly.” (to a Briton in
Budapest,
Hungary, in 1993).
- “Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?” (to a wealthy islander in the
Cayman Islands in 1994).