Sir Christopher Chope pays tribute to HRH Prince Philip The Duke of Edinburgh
“It is a very sad day, we mourn his loss and send our condolences to Her Majesty and all the family.
We thank him for his fantastic service and length of service.
I was lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions, what always struck me was his great sense of humour. It’s just an end of an era.
He was always somebody who would want to try to pick out the less obvious people to meet at gatherings.
I can remember, for example, when I was introducing him to colleagues at some event, he enjoyed meeting the ones who weren’t so eager, he always wanted to help and did not want to indulge those who fought their way to the front of the queue.
He would go for the people who were more reserved I think that was a really endearing characteristic.
A lot of people have always mentioned his Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, it’s given successive generations of young people the ability to find out about themselves, things they didn’t know they could do, his support for that was a continuing legacy.
Obviously behind the scenes his support for Her Majesty is right up the top it was a great partnership.
I think it is very sad we weren’t able to celebrate his centenary, I think people will feel that have missed out on that, we will have to see what happens in relation to national mourning because I think we should not be inhibited in our national mourning by the coronavirus.”
- ENDS -
