Thoughts Upon Philip’s Funeral Service

It is fully televised of course. We could see the distinctive, brilliant blue and wattle gold of his Australian knighthood on the right-hand side of the altar elevated on a handmade cushion. The award was also read out among his titles and honours as the coffin was lowered into the vault. It was time to reflect on Philip’s clear-eyed views about Australians severing their ties to the British as advised by “a discredited Balkan prince of no particular merit or distinction”. On a 1967 visit, he said Australia should abandon the British monarchy and become a Republic if we don’t think get any value from it and cautioned that people understand symbolism but not reason. He was reputed to have told Malcolm Turnbull “you should have been a republic years ago”. He was well ahead of the rest of us. Plainspeaking and always practical, he almost seemed to be egging us on, on behalf of the Queen but, still, we wavered. Widely credited with modernising the British royal family after marrying in, he probably thought it all commonsense. As it is.The biggest interest in the service, in fact, was checking out his German relatives making their first appearance at a British royal event since WWII.