As part of my role in arranging the Green Helo aspects of Royal visits to the ‘Beloved Province’ I had tasked 230 Sqn to take the Duke of Edinburgh from Baronscourt in Co Tyrone to Portpatrick in Scotland in a Puma.
As the sea temperature was forecast to be below 10C the wearing of immersion suits for over-sea transits was mandated. When it came to requesting that the Duke wear an immersion suit there was a discussion/coin toss/rock, paper, scissors between myself and the then OC 230, Wg Cdr I** B***, as to who would have to advise HRH that he would have to squeeze into the rubber ‘goon suit’. I won, rather OC 230 lost and off he went to advise the Duke.
A few minutes later the Wg Cdr returned, looking rather ruddy faced, and said that the Duke had, ahem, refused! However, his refusal was not a simple ‘No’, it was couched, in what Malcolm Tucker might have classed as, ‘industrial language’…as one might expect of an old Naval cove such as the Prince. I also believe that the terms ‘My wife’ and ‘her train set’ may have been used. Strangely enough, on revisiting the Met forecast the sea temperature may have risen somewhat above +10!
At another event, I was accompanying the PSNI Close Protection Team on a Royal Visit to the NW of the Province. One of the sites to be visited was Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry…or Derry as the some of the natives might put it. Now a number of the staff in the hospital were not what one might call ‘natural’ supporters of the Monarchy, and there was a slight concern amongst the Northern Ireland Office and the PSNI as to how the staff would react to the Duke’s visit. They should not have fretted one jot…he was fantastic. He put everyone so much at their ease; jocular when he had to be and serious when the situation arose, and his ability to walk into a ward full of people whom he had never met before and to hold that room, and those in it, was phenomenal.
I feel privileged to have seen him at work close up. He was one of the old school, and we really will never see his like again. I can honestly say that there was a large amount of dust in the air when my daughter rang me from Canada yesterday to tell me of his passing.
God Speed, Sir.