Many of Prince Philip’s 992 patronages ‘will go into retirement’ because it would be ‘overwhelming’ to distribute them between dwindling number of working royals, Omid Scobie claims
- Prince Philip’s patronages will ‘go into retirement’ instead of being passed on
- Biographer says royals are set to work with less charities but have bigger impact
- Added Cambridges and Sussexes work with less charities but have more impact
Many of Prince Philip’s patronages could go into retirement rather than being passed down to his family members, Omid Scobie has claimed.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s friend and biographer said that working royals are set to take on a bigger role in fewer charities rather than splitting their time between hundreds of organisations.
More than 2,800 organisations in the UK have a royal patron. The Duke of Edinburgh was a associated with 992 organisations, either as President, Patron, Honorary Member until his death at Windsor Castle earlier this month.
Many of Prince Philip’s patronages could go into retirement rather than being passed down to his family members, Omid Scobie has claimed. Prince Philip is pictured at the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award gold presentations in County Down in 2017
Omid said that with the visions of a ‘slimmed down monarchy’ it’s unlikely that the royals will be able to take on the responsibility of the Duke’s patronages, which included the Scouts, Shakespeare’s Globe and World Wildlife Fund.
‘We often talk about the slimmed down future for The Firm but we don’t often talk about how that will affect the workload,’ he told the Royally Obsessed podcast.
‘The list of patronages that the Duke of Edinburgh has to his name is quite overwhelming to look at and I don’t think there is a system in place to properly distribute those to all Royal Family members or working royals.
‘Because that covers a legacy of 65 years for the Duke so I think we’ll see many of them go into retirement,’ he added.
More than 2,800 organisations in the UK have a royal patron. The Duke of Edinburgh was a associated with 992 organisations, either as President, Patron, Honorary Member until his death earlier this month. Philip and the Queen are pictured in 1997 at The Globe where he was Patron
While older members of the royal family have more patronages, younger and newer members have taken on less in order to be more active within them.
The Duke of Cambridge is the patron of 20 organisations including Tusk Trust, United for Wildlife and The Passage among others.
Meanwhile, his father Prince Charles, is a patron of an estimated 400 organisations, while the Queen holds around 600 patronages.
However, Kate Middleton only holds 19 patronages, including Action for Children and SportsAid, while Prince Harry has 18 patronges.
Prince William, 38, pictured with the Duchess of Cambridge, 39, at the Cheesy Waffles Project, a charity for children of which Prince Philip was patron. The Duke was heard asking youngsters: ‘Do you know he was my grandfather?
Meanwhile, Meghan Markle’s five patronages include Smart Works, The Royal National Theatre and animal welfare charity Mayhew.
‘What we’ve seen from the Cambridges and even the Sussexes when they were working members of the Royal Family – that kind of lesser approach sees a lot more impactful work,’ Omid added.
‘Harry and Meghan had a very small list of patronages between them but what they managed to do with those patronages was very impressive’.
‘And I think we’ve seen the Cambridges do very much the same with their’s, certainly as Kate continues with her early years work.’
He added that the ‘working model’ of the Royal Family is changing, and there may be less openings and unveilings and instead more focus on cause-driven initiatives.
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