Perhaps Albert’s most famous project was the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in the ‘Crystal Palace’ in London’s Hyde Park. It was organised by the Society of Arts, of which Albert was president, and owed most of its success to his efforts to promote it. Albert had to fight for every stage of the project. Opponents prophesied that foreign rogues and revolutionists would overrun England, subvert the morals of the people and destroy their faith. Albert thought such talk absurd and believed, quite rightly, that British manufacturing would benefit from the exhibition as a showcase for all they could do.

The Queen opened the exhibition on 1 May 1851, and it proved a huge success. It generated a surplus of £180,000, which was used to purchase land in South Kensington on which to establish educational and cultural institutions, including the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Imperial College London and what would later be named the Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The area became known as ‘Albertopolis’ at the time. His impact and name lives on in the hundreds of roads, streets and squares and other places named after him.

Prince Philip has certainly seen an opportunity for himself to do something similar in the way he promotes key activities. He has for many years taken a special interest in and done much to further the interests of British science and engineering, including setting up the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

He used the Great Exhibition as a starting point for the address he gave to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he had accepted the presidency in 1951. Not content with reading the short speech that had been prepared for him, he decided to deliver an ambitious and far-reaching address that was a summary of the progress of science over the previous century from Darwin to nuclear fission. At the time, Philip was still a serving officer in the Royal Navy and enjoying his first proper command of the frigate Magpie. He prepared for his speech for weeks, with his cabin a mass of reference books and papers. His audience on the day of the address was one of the largest gatherings of scientists ever seen in Britain, with some 4000 in attendance.