The announcement of Prince Philip as a knight in the Order of Australia, only the fourth person to have his pre-eminence recognised by the country’s top gong since it was reintroduced, struck a grace note around Australia.
The latest accolade may be lost among the prince’s hundreds of other honours, including a knighthood of Order of the Elephant (Denmark), a Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (Mexico), and a Grand Commander of the Order of Maritime Merit (the San Francisco Port Authority).
The prince is also reportedly worshipped as a God by a clutch of villages on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. But it was his support of the Duke of Edinburgh awards, a youth development program, and his patronage of more than 800 community organisations, that the prime minister cited in awarding Prince Philip the title.
Unmentioned was the prince’s lifetime of service to preserving the cultural awareness of the 18th century, including on a 2002 visit to Queensland, when he asked a local Aboriginal leader, William Brin: “Do you still throw spears at each other?”
Making small talk with a British peer of Jamaican origin in 1999, the prince reportedly asked, “And what exotic part of the world do you come from?” (“Birmingham,” the lord, John Taylor, replied.)
To a woman using a wheelchair, Susan Edwards, accompanied by a guide dog, he quipped: “Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?”
Remarking on the state of the Commonwealth’s youth, at the 50th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh awards, he pronounced: “Young people are the same as they always were. They are just as ignorant.”
Incisive travel reviews have also formed part of his princely repertoire, including of Beijing in 1986 (“ghastly”), the northern English town of Stoke-on-Trent (“ghastly”), and the tiny Scilly Isles (“My son … er … owns them”).
Twitter has swelled with Australians sharing their favourite memories of the prince.
In 1998, he asked a student who had been backpacking in Papua New Guinea: ‘You managed not to get eaten then?’ #princephilip
— James Massola (@jamesmassola) January 25, 2015
#PrincePhilip quotes: To Scottish driving instructor, 1995: “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?”
— Paul Syvret (@PSyvret) January 25, 2015
"Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease." On a visit to Australia in 1992, when asked if he wanted to stroke a koala bear #princephilip
— James Massola (@jamesmassola) January 25, 2015
#PrincePhilip Quotes: "I thought it was against the law for a woman to solicit." - To a woman solicitor
— Casey Briggs (@CaseyBriggs) January 25, 2015
He once reduced a 13-year-old boy to tears by saying he would have to lose weight to fulfil his goal of becoming an astronaut #princephilip
— James Massola (@jamesmassola) January 25, 2015
