His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Baroness Mobarik Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Mobarik (Con)]

My Lords, today I speak not just for myself but on behalf of my family and friends in expressing our deepest condolences to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family on the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke of Edinburgh has been a constant presence in our lives and it is hard to countenance his absence from our midst.

I have a very special memory of meeting His Royal Highness back in 2006, when I was invited by Her Majesty the Queen to Buckingham Palace for what was termed an intimate lunch. As well as the seven other invited guests, there were four members of the Royal Household present, including Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh. I had the honour of sitting next to the Duke and to put me at my ease he began the conversation by saying “Ah, so you’re from Scotland. You know we have a house up there?”. Well, we know that the Duke was not referring to a two up, two down. We chatted about the beauty of Scotland, as well as the challenges it faced. The conversation continued for a number of hours over a lengthy lunch, touching on various subjects.

As your Lordships would expect, during that time His Royal Highness made a few provocative remarks with his dry, witty sense of humour. I will not recount them but let us say it was an interesting and fun conversation. Finally, as dessert was served and I reached out to help myself to what was offered, the Duke said in a cautionary tone, “It is rhubarb, you know”. From that I gathered that, unlike me, he was not a fan of rhubarb crumble.

It was an honour and a privilege for me to spend that unforgettable afternoon in the company of Her Majesty and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, a truly unique and great individual who led a commendable life of public service to which we can only aspire.

For Scotland, in his name he promoted our nation around the world; through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award he offered young people the chance to lay their stake in society; and in our interconnected world he championed the Commonwealth as a mechanism to look ahead so that together we can face up to shared challenges such as climate, conservation and the environment. For our Queen, and indeed for us all, he played a major part in ensuring that this, the second Elizabethan age, was an unrivalled period of peace, prosperity and advancement for our nation.

His Royal Highness the Duke was unique and a visionary. It reminds me of the words of Allama Iqbal, the “Poet of the East”, who died in April 1938. Just half an hour before his death, he sang out his last quatrain:

“The melodies bygone may come again, Or nevermore!

The zephyr from Hijaz may come again, Or nevermore!

The days of this Faqir are ended now, For evermore!

And yet another seer may come again or not, For evermore!”

Surely it would be appropriate to say that men such as His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, are born but in centuries. With these words, goodbye, Your Royal Highness. Rest in peace. We will miss you, but we will always remember you and the contribution that you made.