His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Daisy Cooper Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Daisy Cooper (St Albans) (LD) [V]]

Much has been said in the last few days about Prince Philip’s steadfast support for Her Majesty the Queen—my thoughts are with her and her family—but he was also a figure in his own right, especially in the Commonwealth. I worked in Commonwealth affairs for eight years and met him a number of times, mostly at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s pretty raucous Commonwealth Day receptions, but it has only been in recent days that I have learned just how much he did to shape the association.

Arnold Smith was the first Commonwealth secretary-general. In his memoirs, he talked about how in 1965 he and his wife found themselves standing at the end of a diplomatic line-up at a palace reception. Prince Philip apparently noticed that and demanded an explanation from Whitehall officials. The next week, the secretary-general was informed that he would in the future be put before the line of ambassadors. That was a small but important change in protocol to establish the authority of the first secretary-general of a new multilateral organisation.

Then in 1974, there was a heated debate about whether the word “British” should be dropped from the title of the British Commonwealth games. Prince Philip agreed with Nigeria and some of the other newer countries that it should be dropped, but he made his views known less publicly. Aside from being a royal, he was respected as a sportsman, so the argument was won and the word was dropped.

During my time at the Commonwealth Secretariat in the 2000s, the fourth secretary-general, Sir Don McKinnon, was still benefiting from Prince Philip’s wise counsel. It was a tricky period, with a number of countries facing suspension over military coups or human rights abuses. Don tells me that Prince Philip once said to him, “But, SG, you just have to persevere with some countries for longer than others, especially the UK.” It was very much the in-joke. There is no doubt that in the Commonwealth, Prince Philip was quite the modernising force, helping behind the scenes to help move the Commonwealth beyond the roots of empire to become a modern association of equal sovereign countries supporting democracy and the rule of law.

Many have paid tribute to Prince Philip’s unique Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. In the last eight years, more than 40,000 young people in Hertfordshire have enrolled on the award. In the same year that he established the DofE scheme, he also established the Commonwealth study conferences for young people to discuss industrialisation and its impact on their communities. He was also a patron of the Commonwealth expeditions, which sent young people on intrepid adventures through Europe and the middle east with little more than a rucksack and a bus ticket. It would be a fitting tribute indeed if we could reverse the declining opportunities for young people in Britain to take part in more of these international exchanges.

From St Albans to Saint Lucia, from the corridors of Whitehall to the windswept teenagers in Windermere, from the Allied base of Malta to the cargo cults of Vanuatu, Prince Philip’s contribution to international youth exchanges and modernising the Commonwealth will surely be remembered.