30 Years On and Off the Box Seat

by Philip Duke of Edinburgh

This frank and lively account tells how HRH The Duke of Edinburgh began driving, and details his early, often catastrophic, experiences and his involvement in the organization of the sport of competition driving. He has woven together the story of the origins and development of competition carriage driving, with accounts and results of the events and championships in which he has taken part. In addition he explains how the International Rules came to be written and follows their development over the last thirty years. In the early years he was president of the FEI, the international governing body for show-jumping, dressage, three-day eventing, long-distance riding, vaulting and reining, and therefore found himself on both sides of the fence between competitors and administrators. As a result he was able to identify with the interests of the competitors when changes were proposed to the rules or to the general administrative regulations. He claims that he must be one of the very few competitors in any international sport who has competed in a World Championship in one of the disciplines of which he was the president of the international governing body. Some of his experiences as a driver are somewhat hair-raising, but he stoutly maintains that the sport is not particularly dangerous. He emphasizes how much successful competition depends on teamwork, both among the driver and grooms as well as among the horses and ponies, and how much they all come to depend on each other. He makes the point that everything has to come together to achieve success in this demanding and very competitive sport. The events are obviously the point of competition carriage driving, but Prince Philip makes it clear that the social life during these weekend events is also an important aspect of the sport. As so many of the competitors are regular participants, he has described the season as a 'peripatetic weekend party' for like-minded people. His Royal Highness also writes about his horses and ponies, his grooms, friends, fellow competitors and his travels in pursuit of the sport. Many of the competitors' horses and ponies become just as well known as many of the humans and, in fact, everyone comes to know the names of the leaders in the tandem classes very quickly. The book contains many hitherto unpublished photographs and anecdotes and is distinguished by the author's inimitable dry wit and humour. It is a book for every driving enthusiast.

298 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark) was the husband and cosort of Queen Elizabeth II. He was the longest-serving, oldest-ever spouse of a reigning British monarch, and the longest-lived male member of the British royal family.

A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Prince Philip was born in Greece into the Greek and Danish royal families, but his family was exiled from Greece when he was a baby. After being educated in France, England, Germany, and Scotland, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, at the age of 18. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth (his third cousin through Queen Victoria and the elder daughter and heir presumptive of King George VI) whom he had first met in 1934. During the Second World War he served with the Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.

After the war, Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement, he abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and became a naturalised British subject, adopting the surname Mountbatten, from his maternal grandparents. After an engagement of five months, as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, he married Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. Just before the marriage, the King granted him the style of His Royal Highness and the title Duke of Edinburgh. Philip left active service, having reached the rank of commander, when Elizabeth became Queen in 1952. His wife made him a prince of the United Kingdom in 1957.

Philip had four children with Elizabeth: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. He had eight grandchildren and (as of 2024) thirteen great-grandchildren. Through a British Order in Council issued in 1960, descendants of Philip and Elizabeth not bearing royal styles and titles can use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, which has also been used by some members who do hold titles, such as Charles and Anne.

A keen sports enthusiast, Philip helped develop the equestrian event of carriage driving. He was a patron of over 800 organisations and chairperson of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme for people aged 14 to 24 years.

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I so wanted to love this, as I usually can't resist a Royal Horsey Biography. But I only got a couple of chapters in. I found it a but repetitive, maybe needed a good edit to take out things that had already been discussed before - and one show report after another can start to drag when they all start to seem the same.

That said, I did learn some new facts - I had no idea the DoE had been just so instrumental in creating and bringing into being the sport of Carriage Driving. And the photos throughout the book are stunning, Maybe one to treat as a coffee-table book rather than something to read cover to cover.