Prince Philip’s school report reveals he was ‘often naughty, but never nasty’
The report also reveals how the royal mocked the Nazis throughout his school years in Germany.
Prince Philip was ‘often naughty, but never nasty’, an unearthed school report has revealed.
New details from the royal’s early years have come to light thanks to a special document written by his Gordonstoun headmaster Kurt Hahn.
The Duke of Edinburgh was shipped off to the Scottish boarding school in Elgin, Moray, at 13 after repeatedly mocking the Nazi salute while at another school in Germany in the 1930s.
‘Whenever the Nazi salute was given, he roared with laughter and attracted universal attention,’ reads the report, which was written specially for the Duke’s marriage to the Queen in 1947.
The future British royal reportedly found the salute funny because as a young boy, the same gesture had been used at his school to signify when pupils wanted to use the toilet.
The report adds: ‘After he had been admonished to caution, he continued to be doubled up in uncontrollable mirth.
‘He no longer roared, but nevertheless attracted universal attention.
‘”We thought it better for him and also for us if he returned to England right away,” said his sister who brought him to Gordonstoun.’
The £40,000-a-year school has now educated three generations of the Royal Family, including Prince Charles – although he once described the institution as ‘Colditz with kilts’.
His father Philip was branded a ‘naughty, but never nasty’ pupil by Hahn, who suggested he grew tired of the attention being a royal brought him.
Hahn wrote: ‘When he was in middle-school he got into a fair number of scrapes through recklessness and wildness. He was often naughty, never nasty.
‘He had grown impatient of what for short may be called Royalty nonsense.
‘After matches and theatrical performances people often asked him for an autograph. He found this ridiculous and on one occasion signed himself The Earl of Baldwin, to the bewilderment of the autograph hunter.’
According to Hahn, Philip had an ‘ease and forthrightness in dealing with all kinds’ and added that ‘his marked trait was his undefeatable spirit, he felt deeply both joy and sadness, and the way he looked and the way he moved indicated what he felt’.
The Duke was also praised for his ‘meticulous attention to detail’ and according to Hahn, was ‘never content with mediocre results.’
One anecdote describes how Philip narrowly missed a baby’s pram while riding his bike.
It reads: ‘He was in the habit of cycling regardless of safety rules, and on one occasion he avoided a clash with a baby in a perambulator by inches, thanks to his unusual agility: He appeased the mother by an apology which was irresistible.’
The future Duke of Edinburgh left Gordonstoun in 1939 before joining the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.
His last visit to the institution was to celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2014.
Philip died last Friday at the age of 99 and his funeral will be held this Saturday following a week of national mourning.
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