It was with great sadness that the Institution of Engineering Designers marked the passing of its royal patron, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on 9 April at the age of 99
Touring the newly opened Salford Technical College building
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association with the Institution cannot fail to further its cause and it is hoped that it will mark another milestone on the road to the Royal Charter.’ The presentation of the Duke’s membership diploma and an illuminated address, which had been delayed by the royal couple’s sevenmonth, 13-country around-the-world tour, took place during a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace at 11 o’clock on Friday 4 June 1954. The low-key ceremony was attended by Francis Curzon, the Fifth Earl Howe, Lord Brocket and Lord McGowan, and the IED’s general secretary (and founding president), Walter E Walters, who was in attendance at the express request of the Duke, who wished to meet the person ‘who does all the work’.
UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
he Duke’s association with the IED began in 1953, not long after Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, an event marked in the September 1953 edition of the Drawing Office Announcer. Under a rather ornate item offering the new Queen the ‘sincere congratulations on the occasion of the coronation of your majesty’, there appeared a somewhat more subdued but equally momentous note entitled ‘A coronation honour for the institution’, which announced the news that the Duke of Edinburgh had accepted the IED’s offer of Honorary Membership. ‘The entire IED Membership will welcome this news with enthusiasm since it seems to indicate a measure of Royal favour and encouragement. The Duke’s
In accepting the Honorary Membership, the Duke of Edinburgh paid eloquent tribute to ‘creative ingenuity, the distinguishing hallmark of a profession which rarely comes to the note of the public’. Given that Earl Howe had been a very successful racing car driver during the 1930s, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the Duke chose to speak of his own attempts to design a car, a topic that he then explored further with the delegation. According to a piece in the Drawing Office Announcer that reported on the ceremony: ‘The tone was most friendly and informal – a cordial exchange of comments all round – which the Duke appeared to enjoy no less than the rest of the party.’ The piece continued on to say that ‘it was gratifying to note that the BBC attached sufficient importance to the event to make mention of it in the news bulletins’. Prince Philip became Patron of the Institution soon after and continued to work with the IED on a variety of topics, including the Duke of Edinburgh’s Prize for Elegant Design (later renamed the Prince Philip Designers Prize; see Royal Recognition) and the hosting of receptions. And in the ensuing years, he took an active interest in the workings of the IED, receiving notices regarding notable events and requesting details of the running of the organisation, such as balance sheets, annual reports and the appointment of auditors. In 1956, Prince Philip founded the Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conferences, and hosted the first, in Oxford. Entitled ‘The Duke of Edinburgh’s Study Conference on the Human Problems of Industrial Communities within the Commonwealth and Empire’, it was a project that was ahead of its time,
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GETTY IMAGES, UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (2), JAGUAR LAND ROVER, ANDRÉ CROS/WIKIMEDIA
Our patron remembered
