The death of Prince Philip

Despite having the same human failings as every other human, Prince Philip, in the documentaries on the BBC after his death, has been shown to be one of the great men - and I use that word intentionally for good and ill - of the past 100 years, in Western civilisation - a civilisation whose values, again, flawed for being human, nevertheless will be missed within a decade from now. Tall, handsome, physically expert at every sport he tried, superb and brave in war on the high seas, intelligent, interested in science, an early adopter of new technologies, and an environmentalist, who stood by his wife for 70 years as monarch and never complained, and was known for an irreverent sense of humour, with a Christian mother who harboured Jews from Nazis, and a profligate father, Philip Mountbatten was the all-rounder - a flawed but ideal sort of 'James Bond' man's man - strong, stoic, and able to serve a greater common good. He was no rebel, but he was non-traditional in many ways. We know his slips of the tongue (if such they were) and of course he represented the idea of empire and commonwealth. He was the ultimate Establishment figure. But, in that capacity, he was truly great at his 'job'. Younger people may choose to mock or hate on him, but the fact is, such people (men and women) defeated the Nazis. He was the bedrock of British society and its functioning success through crisis after crisis - he met 18 US presidents as the consort to her Majesty - and he remained the same - you knew who he was, he knew who he was, and he never apologised. He may be an old-fashioned kind of man, but boy, is he an impressive model for one way of achieving excellence and living a good life. He will be so missed, it is heart-breaking.