'A rude old man from a bygone age?'

Not so much

Prince Philip at a ceremony with the Archdruid of Wales in 1960. The year after, he became the first member of the royal family to be interviewed on television. Photo by Hogyncymru – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

I have a niece who is a Duke of Edinburgh scheme awardee. When Prince Philip died, barely two months before his 100th birthday, I asked her how she felt. “Sad,” she said, “I always liked him, he was funny.”

Now my niece was, by no means close to Prince Philip. She met him at a ceremony for the Award that bears his name. She was one of the millions — in more than 140 countries — who have benefited from the scheme since it started in 1956. She was one of the lucky ones, who as Prince Philip once said, got a “do-it-yourself growing-up kit” just by being on the scheme.

It spoke volumes too that my niece, a young woman with a pretty good sense of humour herself, remembered Prince Philip so fondly for his jocularity.

It made me realise the truth of what Robert Jobson has written in his forthc…