His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, our hearts go out to the Queen and to the whole Royal Family because theirs is the greatest loss. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh was a man of great gifts, and he shared them not just with this nation but with the wider world. I want to say a few words about that. We know that those gifts came from him as a man of action but also as a deeply thoughtful man. He was an innovative thinker, a free thinker, and someone who thought forward about the challenges that the whole world would face. He saw that at the heart of those challenges and addressing the challenges of these times is the need to unlock the potential of the individual.

So many in this House have been beneficiaries of the Duke’s forethought, thinking and capacity to innovate. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme is one aspect of that; I currently chair its international council. Another is Book Aid International. That charity, of which the Duke was patron for over 50 years, right up until his death, helped me as a little boy growing up in the Gold Coast—Ghana. With his friend, the Countess Ranfurly, he supported Book Aid to enable the library I went to as a little boy to be stocked with books—which he knew would make a difference, and which did make a difference. He went on supporting the work of Book Aid throughout his life. Indeed, one of his last receptions, at St James’s—those of us who were there will never forget it—was to benefit Book Aid to enable us to work in refugee camps and conflict zones and to respond with books and support for libraries and librarians in places dealing with the aftermath of climate change, making a difference in the lives of ordinary people. We saw—and see—that at work in the work of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award internationally, in more than 140 countries where the award is making a difference. The messages that have flowed into us at Award House over the past 72 hours have demonstrated its reach and its impact.

I will share just one aspect of that contact between His Royal Highness and the wider world that dates back to a visit he made in South Africa with Nelson Mandela to Pollsmoor Prison. The award globally is making a difference in prisons, changing young lives. When he went to Pollsmoor with Nelson Mandela, the award was operating in South Africa for the first time because His Royal Highness would not allow it to work in apartheid South Africa, where young people, black and white, of different colours and creeds, were not able to do the award together. He said no to racism because his award was incompatible with racism. That was His Royal Highness for you: he would not allow it in racist South Africa but he supported and encouraged it in the new South Africa. The award was for everyone.

His attitude is summed up by his writing. We know he wrote 14 books, but one in particular, A Question of Balance, strikes me as being of particular significance. He wrote:

“For the first time people are beginning to be conscious of the whole world and its place in the solar and stellar system. Political consciousness has been going up the scale from ‘my family’, ‘my city’ ‘my country’, to ‘my world’ … If consciousness on this scale can be combined with love and concern then there is real hope.”


Love and concern—that summed up His Royal Highness’s life; love of Queen and duty, concern for a shared planet and a shared humanity.

In Africa, when someone such as His Royal Highness passes on, they say “A mighty tree has fallen.” So indeed it has. In South Africa they say, “Hamba kahle, mkhulu”, which means, “Go well, great one.” Go well.