His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, I have heard every word of this debate—that is the penalty of being number 79—but it has been an extraordinarily instructive afternoon and, I think, a very moving one. We have heard some very remarkable speeches. All of us taking part in this debate are privileged to be able to pay tribute to a man I consider to be a very great man, whose influence will not diminish but will grow in succeeding years.

He is certainly the longest-serving consort but, in many ways, he is the most remarkable consort in our history, and he has touched so many lives. He has been something of a polymath. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said a moment or two ago that he had a moral compass. I have often said in your Lordships’ House that one of the great losses of the second half of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century has been the loss of our moral compass. But here was a man who, throughout his life, sought to hold fast to those things which are good and to

“render to no man evil for evil”,

quoting the prayer book of which he was a devotee.

The whole debate has been suffused by an atmosphere of love, and I hope that Her Majesty the Queen—to whom we have all, of course, offered our sincerest condolences—will derive some comfort from the fact that the feeling of affection for her and her late husband and the feeling of deep admiration have been palpable. We have had many speeches from members of all political parties and none, and there has been not a word of criticism but a total unanimity of appreciation. I am grateful, as I am sure other noble Lords are, to those who control these things for ensuring that this day was devoted to the proper commemoration of a very great man.

Many of us have talked about personal memories. I first remember Prince Philip when he came to Grimsby when I was a young boy of eight taken by my mother with a flag to stand at the side of the road and wave as he went by. Some 55 years later, when the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee, we had a special CPA conference in Lancaster House. As treasurer of the CPA, it was my duty to take Prince Philip around to meet the parliamentarians who had come from all over the Commonwealth. There was not a single country to which he had not gone. As we walked together, he had some wonderful anecdotes about some of those countries, many of which I would not think it appropriate to divert your Lordships with. But I remember that he had around him a thoroughly entranced group of young parliamentarians from Malta, for which, of course, he had a deep and abiding affection. He was actually teaching them some Maltese history. It was quite remarkable. When I saw him on subsequent occasions, he often referred to it.

In 2005, I had a slightly difficult year because, very tragically, one of my opponents in the general election died. My general election was delayed by seven weeks. During that period, I attended a reception in aid of the “Cutty Sark”, one of Prince Philip’s great causes, at Buckingham Palace. He came over to me and expressed great sympathy for the fact that I had not yet had my general election. When I hosted him just a few months later at a lunch at the Athenaeum, where we were welcoming a new portrait which we had commissioned, he said, “Well, you made it. You made it, and I am very glad you did”, and we had a good talk. But the great thing I remember about that lunch was how very kind he was to the young Welsh artist, Graham Jones, who had painted the portrait. He showed a real enthusiasm. Of course, he loved art—he was no mean painter himself—and he talked to Graham at length during the lunch, who I am sure will never forget that day.

He was a truly great man. He held fast to that which is good, and I hope that talk of a memorial in Westminster comes to something. It would be right for him to be permanently commemorated in the Palace of Westminster. If anyone deserves a memorial, he does. He is somebody who has rendered the state some service.