The Thamesmead Grump

PRINCE PHILIP RETIRES

Buckingham Palace has announced that Prince Philip is to finally retire, aged 95. Fair enough I suppose. I was thinking of doing the same thing when I'm 95.

I don't know how long Reptilians normally live for, David Icke doesn't say in any of the books he has written on the subject as far as I am aware (to tell the truth, I haven't actually read any) but I may be wrong.

Anyway, I met Prince Philip briefly in 1969 while serving in the Royal Air Force at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire. 

A poor quality image of a Type 12
Imperial War Museum

At the time, RAF Wyton was home to most of the RAFs photographic reconnaissance capability and I worked in what was called "The Factory". This was a building away from the main base and which housed the main facility for processing and interpreting photographic film. The two main pieces of equipment were 5 Type 12 film processors which developed the 12" film from the large cameras and a type 11 film processor which dealt with the 70mm film from the smaller tactical cameras.

One day we were informed that Prince Philip was going to make an "informal" visit to the station. 

Prince Philip was generally well regarded by the armed forces; our calling him "Phil the Greek" as we tended to do, was actually far more an affectionate term than a discourteous one.

Having served in the Royal Navy and a combat veteran, he was seen as more "one of us" than the other royals who just dressed up for the occasion. There was also a fairly high opinion of his sense of humour in those days before everything anyone in the public eye said was put through the "politically correct" mill.

Me (background) and my mate Ron Bevan working on a Type 11
This wasn't at the Factory but somewhere in Germany.

Came the day of the visit, there we were, standing to attention next to our designated machine, looking very competent in our spotless white coats and hoping to God that the films we had running through the machines didn't break (which they had a tendency to do from time to time).

Prince Philip, looking very regal and attired as a Marshal of the Royal Air Force got to me, looked at me, looked at my Type 11, looked back at me and said "going all right then?" which I thought was very gracious then moved on. I managed to stammer a "yes Sir" before remembering I was supposed to say "yes, Your Highness" but by that time, he had already found something else to look at and I didn't think I should chase after him to correct my faux-pas. The Station Commander who was in the following train winked at me as he went past so I suppose I did all right. I imagine he was hoping to God the film didn't break as well.

AND FINALLY...................................

The most utterly mind blowing second hand car commercial ever.