Not in Front of the Corgis by Brian Hoey Read Free Book Online Page A

Philip, who receives £359,000 a year from Government funds to meet his public duty expenses, has always had a reputation for being rude and overbearing , but excluding The Queen’s personal staff, he employs the most loyal team anywhere in the Household. They will not hear a word said against their boss, and even though he still rants and raves from time to time, he doesn’t bear grudges, so they all know that once he has got something off his chest, even when it means they have to stand and take the most appalling abuse, he will forget it the following day – as if nothing has happened.
    The present author was once sitting in the office of Sir Philip [later Lord] Moore, private secretary to The Queen, when Prince Philip burst in and proceeded togive the poor man the most horrific verbal roasting. All the while Sir Philip (a man who had been a gallant Bomber Command pilot during the Second World War and later played rugby for England) stood there and did not say a word. When Prince Philip left, Sir Philip apologised to me for having to witness the incident and then mentioned that the matter that HRH was accusing him of was, in fact, the responsibility of someone else. When I asked why on earth he didn’t speak up for himself, he replied, ‘You have to remember , in this house, royalty may not always be right, but they are never wrong.’
    Apparently, later in the day, the Duke of Edinburgh spoke to Sir Philip as if the row had never occurred. It was just a normal glitch in the average day at Buckingham Palace. But if the situation had been reversed, Philip Moore would have been out of the Palace without his feet touching the ground.
    But there is one characteristic that endears Prince Philip to his staff. His loyalty to them is second to none; unlike some other members of the family to whom loyalty is a one-way street. Philip will go out of his way to protect any of his team, from his valets to his most senior private secretary, if he believes they are in the right. There is a large turnover of staff in certain offices, but Prince Philip’s team are the longest serving of any – including that of Her Majesty. And when his chauffeur died in 2011, Prince Philip did not send a representative to the funeral, he broke with tradition by insisting on attending himself, showing how high a regard he had for the man who had served him loyally for many years.
    Prince Philip is a man who had to endure humiliation the moment he joined the Royal Family. His father-in-law, King George VI grudgingly granted him the right to be styled His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, on his marriage to Princess Elizabeth in 1947, but refused to permit him to be called a Prince, even though he had previously been Prince Philip of Greece and at the time of his birth he was sixth in line to the Greek throne. So in some ways he was more royal than his wife, as she had a mother who had been born a commoner.
    It was when Princess Elizabeth became Queen that she made up for her father’s attitude and showered honours on Philip, creating him a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957; Knight of the Garter; Knight of the Thistle; awarding him the Order of Merit and making him a Privy Councillor. So in effect, every honour that Prince Philip has received has been from his wife.
    While The Queen wears the crown, in the Mountbatten/Windsor family there is no doubt that Philip wears the trousers. Even at his great age, he still summons his four children to Balmoral every year – without The Queen present – even though they have all married and had children of their own.
    He carries out a review of the previous year: what they have achieved; their successes and their failures. He doesn’t pull his punches, but neither is he unfair and if one of them disagrees with his assessment, he will listen to their arguments. He accepts reasons but not excuses.
    In the early days it was a bit like being hauled in front of the headmaster; these days it’s more of a