Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Phillip In memory

When the British battleship HMS Ramillies sailed into Sydney Harbour on March 14, 1940, the crew included an 18-year-old midshipman known as Philip, Prince of Greece. In early April, the ship made its way to Melbourne, and Philip took advantage of another brief furlough to spend a week at a sheep station, which he described years later as the best holiday he'd ever spent: "perfectly natural life; no frills and no fads". In the years that followed, Prince Philip saw active service in the Mediterranean (present in the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Cape Matapan and the Allied invasion of Sicily) and then in the Pacific. He was in Tokyo Bay, as first lieutenant on the HMS Whelp, when the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender in September 1945. The Whelp then sailed on to Sydney in November. Prince Phillip visited Australia 32 times over 72 years and included the silver jubilee tour of 1977, the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in 1982 and the Bicentennial in 1988 and in 1954 to Toowoomba. Public holidays were declared, and buildings were painted, decorated and illuminated for the visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. I extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to Queen Elizabeth on the death of the Duke at age 99.