Part 71
For some strange reason it seems to be a “passing on” season. ExoTeamer Number Two Alan Douglas has been well and truly validated by the entire ExoBrain team, and then a lifelong friend in South Africa, Victor Lidchi, who some of you may know, passed after a battle with poor health for many years. We wish him bon voyage.
And of course, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Many of you reading this are not British, but I would like to express some thoughts about the great man and the entire concept of the Royal Family.
As I’ve previously stated, I was born in England in 1936 and only left for South Africa at the age of ten. Therefore, my early childhood was imbued with the constant presence of a King and Queen living in some fairy tale palace a few miles away in London.
When World War Two broke out in 1939, the King’s presence, along with that of Winston Churchill, was made even more evident as they broadcasted messages of hope and fortitude, instilling in the Brits a sense of courage and willingness to lay down their lives, if needed, for King and Country. It was not generally known until many years later how King George VI struggled with a terrible stutter and, by sheer perseverance, that he managed to overcome it sufficiently to broadcast on radio his inspiring words to a nation almost certain that the Germans would invade us any day.
I was evacuated three times during the war. Our hometown of Weybridge had as the prime target of the German Luftwaffe, the Vickers-Armstrong aircraft factory on the outskirts built on the site of the once famous Brooklands motor racing track. We had numerous raids overhead and my parents sent me variously to Devon, Birmingham and Scotland to escape the real possibility of being bombed.
All of this is to show that, as a young child growing up in wartime Britain, the King and the Royal family were symbols of the nation’s defiance against seemingly overwhelming odds.
After the war, my feeling of respect for the royals was enhanced by the fact that King George and Queen Elizabeth (later the queen mother) and their two children Elizabeth and Margaret embarked on a Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947. By a remarkable coincidence, my parents and I arrived in the coastal town of George just a few minutes before the White Train (so named because it was painted white, not for any racial significance) arrived at the station of the small town, where a huge banner proclaimed, ambiguously, “Welcome to George.”
Later in Cape Town my mother and some friends were walking through the streets of the suburb of Wynberg when the Queen drove past and waved. The ladies did their best to curtsy but probably only managed it when the car was way past them!
So, I have been all my life a royalist, which is odd in a way as there are many aspects about British high society that I find pathetic and infuriating, even though I was brought up to be “one of them.”
Today was the funeral of Prince Philip. My wife Hero and I watched every moment of it on television and, again coincidently my grandson Andrew, who is starting a career in television, was part of the crew that filmed the funeral. He called to say that he had had to rush out and buy a suit for the day itself as he was within the grounds of Windsor Castle throughout the ceremony.
How did we feel, watching this simple but very moving ceremony?
Over the years, as the media has become more and more intrusive in the lives of the famous, especially the royals, their image has been considerably tarnished, not only by the press but also by the behavior of some of the younger royals. Nevertheless, we watched quite tearfully as Prince Philip was laid to rest. He was a remarkable man with endless energy and many talents who had to sublimate much of it in deference to the Queen as Head of State.
He was also famed for being very forthright and given to shooting his mouth off in the midst of an elite and traditionally conservative royal circle. Did we admire him for that? In many ways, yes. He did so much to keep the public face of royalty alive. Of course, Hero was additionally fascinated by the man because of his partial Greek heritage.
To sum up, in many ways the concept of a royal family with all its pomp and circumstance, the constant ceremonial tasks of the armed services and simply the aura of centuries-old tradition still induces a sense of magic in most of us.
Perhaps our childhood dreams and tales of Princes and Princesses falling in love against all odds, has inspired in us secret wishes to be like them. In reality, however, the life of a senior royal is incredibly tough. They have to ignore personal ambitions, as Philip so admirably did, to fit into the royal scenario.
Rebels like Princess Margaret could not conform. We had another insight into her turbulent life some years ago when Hero’s brother Hector called us from Mozambique where he was running the family businesses with his father. He asked us if an Englishman he had met could stay with us for a couple of days?
We agreed, and the young man arrived a few days later. We soon discovered that his father was a famous Olympic horseman and head of the Guinness brewing family. The son, Roddy Llewellyn, did not appear to have a fixed aim in life but he was very amusing and we enjoyed his company.
A few years later, Roddy’s name appeared linked to Princess Margaret, and their affair was one of the numerous scandals that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had to endure. More recent dramas with the Duke of York, Prince Edward and, of course, Harry have had the royal family wobbling under their coronets.
Nevertheless, a remarkable epoch has passed as Prince Philip has been so tastefully and tearfully laid to rest. Despite the distractions, I expect that I will remain a royalist. Basically, it gives all of us something somewhat magical to dream about.
On a much more practical level, I’m dreaming of the day when ExoTech is launched, and the over-complexities of today’s computing are also laid to rest forever!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.