Whether removing the back of a clock to see how the mechanism worked or haranguing a visiting bishop about the sermon he had just preached, Prince Philip was famous for his inquisitive mind.
What is not generally known is that among the Duke’s many interests was a fascination with the paranormal, in particular, UFOs.
This dates back to the beginning of the Queen’s reign, when he became a regular subscriber to the Flying Saucer Review.
Prince Philip looks up at the sky at King’s College, Newcastle in 1951. Are you expecting aliens?
Winston Churchill, felt moved to write an exciting memo to Secretary of State for Air, Lord Cherwell: “What does all this flying saucer business amount to?”
Earth against flying saucers! Prince Philip was eager to get to the bottom of it all
Philip’s uncle Earl Mountbatten (left) wrote to his eldest daughter, Patricia, that he was convinced that UFOs “come from another planet.” Felipe listens carefully
In the late 1940s and early 1950s there were a series of apparent UFO sightings, mainly in the United States, which were widely reported in the press.
The Air Ministry had “a UFO desk” for recording reports of interplanetary craft. Even the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was moved to write an exciting memo to Secretary of State for Air, Lord Cherwell: “What does all this flying saucer business amount to?” What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience. CSM July 28, 1952.’
Churchill was not the only member of the establishment concerned about this. Philip’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten, wrote to his eldest daughter, Patricia, that he was convinced that UFOs “came from another planet” and that “they were not ‘airplanes’ with silly little, almost human pilots, but were its inhabitants.” real: Martians, Venusians, Jupiterians”. or whatever.’
He even wrote a detailed report about an alleged sighting on his own Broadlands property, witnessed by a retired British Army sergeant, Frederick Briggs, who worked as a bricklayer on the property and who “says he saw a large ship that looked like the top of a child”. floating over a field. He says that a column descended from the center of the ship and that there appeared to be a humanoid figure descending with the column.
Influenced Mountbatten thought that Briggs “did not give the impression of being the sort of man who would be subject to hallucinations or who would somehow make up such a story.”
The other influence on Philip’s extraterrestrial quest was a member of his own household, Sir Peter Horsley, the Duke’s equerry between 1949 and 1956.
Horsley had been deputy commander-in-chief of Strike Command during the war, someone whose honesty and integrity should not have been in doubt.
That being said, he was a man who was subject to the odd paranormal encounter. After his Mosquito plane was shot down during a mission, the recovering Horsley believed that he had received messages from several of his fellow officers who, in fact, were all dead.
The squire clearly convinced Philip of his point of view. The duke asked him to follow up on any credible reports of sightings and invited witnesses to Buckingham Palace to give their accounts in person.
He even wrote to Timothy Good, a renowned ufologist, pointing out that “there are many reasons to believe they exist.”
It is unclear how convinced the prince was about UFOs or whether this was another example of his ever-inquiring mind keeping his options open.
Certainly, Sir Peter Horsley simply told his boss about his encounter with what he claimed was a real-life alien in a London flat.
The alien guy called himself “Mr. Janus” and said he could read minds. Horsley recalls in his memoirs: “He didn’t say he was a visitor from another planet, but I got that impression.
‘I think he was here to watch us. I never saw him again.
During their meeting, Janus said he wanted to meet Prince Philip, whom he described as “a man of great vision, a world-renowned person and a leader in the field of wildlife and the environment.”
Is this what they look like? A ‘UFO sighting’ in Winona, Missouri, in 1957
There was an alleged sighting at Broadlands, the Mountbatten family home
Prince Philip watches equerry Sir Peter Horsley attempt to carry a camera
Prince Philip subscribed to Flying Saucer Review
He is a man who firmly believes in the proper relationship between man and nature, which will prove of great importance in future galactic harmony.
(From the looks of it, even the most cynical reader would have to admit that if aliens exist, they’re pretty well informed about the British royal family.)
Not all of the establishment were as willing to consider Horsley’s point of view as Prince Philip.
When his memoirs were published in 1997, a senior Ministry of Defense official commented: “How unfortunate for the public to learn that the man who had his finger on the Strike Command button was seeing little green men.”
The late Queen also realized that there might be something out there. In March 2009, a UFO researcher in Victoria, Australia, sent a letter to Buckingham Palace addressed directly to ‘Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’.
The message was equally direct: ‘I am writing to inform you, Madam, that the British Government continues to refuse to reveal the truth behind its files and reports on unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
The writer informed the Queen that UFOs were more than “weather balloons, planes, helicopters, lights or natural phenomena” and said they had attempted to contact various UK government departments, from the RAF, the Ministry of Defense and even the MI5, to persuade them. of the “seriousness of this UFO security problem.”
He continued, “As I write this letter to you, Your Majesty, I contemplate whether or not you will come to your senses and whether you will choose to act, Madam.”
The letter ended by urging “as a UFO investigator, I must strongly recommend that you act now, Your Majesty.”
‘You are capable of deciding your own destiny. The question is Her Majesty, which path will she choose?
Another possible UFO sighting, this time in San Francisco in 1956
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip view the Apollo 14 module and model of the space shuttle during a tour of the Rockwell International space facility in 1983.
Prince Philip meets a man in a space suit during a visit to the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, 1966.
‘I look forward to your immediate action and response to this serious UFO problem. “I have the honor to be, madam, the humble and obedient servant of your Majesty.”
The Queen’s Private Secretary responded on her behalf: “Although this is not a matter in which Her Majesty would intervene, the letter has been transmitted to the Secretary of State for Defence, so that this approach to the Queen is known and taken into account. consider the points raised in the letter.’
The Ministry of Defense wrote to the investigator saying that, although the Government took the defense of UK airspace very seriously, there was no evidence that UFOs were a threat to national security.
Whether the Queen acted, as instructed, and discussed the threat of a UFO invasion with the powers that be remains a mystery, but it would have been nice to be a fly on the wall when she mentioned it to the Duke.
- Ian Lloyd is the author of The Duke: 100 Chapters in the Life of Prince Philip, published by The History Press