University of Reading pays tribute to honorary graduate HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

The University of Reading has paid tribute to His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died on 9 April and whose funeral is tomorrow (17 April).

Extending condolences on behalf of the University, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Van de Noort, paid tribute to the Duke, who was an Honorary Graduate of the University and Honorary Life Member of Reading University Students’ Union.

Professor Van de Noort said: “The thoughts of the students, colleagues and community of the University of Reading are with Her Majesty The Queen and members of the Royal Family as they mourn the death of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

“The Duke demonstrated extraordinary dedication in supporting The Queen fulfil her duties, and supported many key causes in his own right. In particular, I note with admiration Prince Philip’s life-long commitment to the education and development of young people, his interest in science and technology, and passion for environmental conservation.

“We have been honoured at the University of Reading to have been connected with Prince Philip at several key points in our history, for which we are proud and very grateful.”

Prince Philip visited the University of Reading on several occasions. On 22 March 1957 the Duke accompanied the Queen when she opened the Faculty of Letters Building at Whiteknights – now known as the Edith Morley Building.

Watch video of The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s 1957 visit >>>

The Duke served as Honorary President of Reading University Students’ Union, from 1957-58, and was honorary life member. On 24 November 1958, the students’ union gave a dinner for the Duke at Wantage Hall with more than 100 guests.

Buckingham Palace said in letters arranging the details for the dinner that this was the “first time that the Duke of Edinburgh had made a special visit to a Students’ Union”. The Duke arrived driving a black Lagonda convertible and was greeted by Patrick Hamilton, the President of the Students' Union. They ate Julienne soup, salmon mayonnaise, roast turkey and ‘peach surprise’, before celery creams and coffee.

Following dinner, the Duke chatted informally to the other dinner guests in the junior common room. According to press reports at the time, The Duke said after the event: “It is interesting to see the nonconformity of students and their flouting of authority. It is sad that they are not able to continue this in later life.

“Students are not really different from other people, it is only that they are in different circumstances.”

The Duke of Edinburgh was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Reading in July 1960, on the occasion of the 8th International Grassland Congress, held at Whiteknights, which he attended as the then President of the Congress.

Presenting him for his degree, the then Vice-Chancellor, Sir John Wolfenden, said “… the direct freshness of his approach to any problem, human, mechanical, organisational or constitutional, is of a kind to displode the complacent and to tear the stuffing out of any shirt.”

Sir John added: “If he were not the husband of Her Majesty The Queen he would in his own right be one of the most distinguished men of his generation; that he combines these personal qualities with his Royal position is one of the greatest piece of good fortune which this country, in its long history, has ever enjoyed.”

More recently, The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Henley Business School’s Greenlands campus in 2012, as part of the celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee, where they watched a river pageant on the Thames along with thousands of invited guests from the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Professor Kate Williams, royal historian and Professor of Public Engagement with History at the University of Reading, said: “HRH The Duke of Edinburgh devoted his extraordinarily long life to the support of Her Majesty The Queen, as a consort, as a loyal subject, but most of all as a husband.

“History will remember Prince Philip as not only as the longest ever serving consort to a reigning monarch, but perhaps the most successful, in helping the monarchy to change and adapt to modern times, while the people themselves have stayed the same.”