Dear Elisabeth, sincere condolences with your late husband Prince Philip.
I have myself tried to be through such trials, loosing someone I really liked, and I must say, that I really sympathise. You cannot describe the loss you feel, when someone so close goes away.
So this is not a critical review of Prince Philip, but rather a call to all his strenghts and qualities.
Once a gentleman, always a gentleman.
What was it that that gentleman gave the world. Well, being a loyal knight of he Maltese brotherhood myself, my take on how I see see Prince Philips qualities, is seen through that filter, the filter of a knight of the realm. What was prince Philip really? He was the one, who still held the banner high even though everbody else seems to have lost their grip. It is in this unswerving loyality and honor to the crown, that I see his greatest quality.
He would enter a fight with a song on his lips, and an ode to England, holding the banner high over his head. And he had done it, in his own life, many times.
You have very few of those loyal, serving souls left in this world. To me, being able to serve one of those brave knights of the realm, has been a tremendous honor.
He was the very soul of Britain.
But the beauty of his life will be, that the virtues and values, that he had, will be carried over to new generations to come. Making sure, that there is an England also after his departure from the fight of keeping Britain whole and sound.
He was an ideal to many, and a stallwart defender of the realm.
Hail to him, and may he rest in peace, having lived a life of quality and sincerity, that few others have lived.
G-d bless the magic islands of the British, and may it prevail. G-d bless the living memory of his highness prince Philip.