The Duke of Edinburgh - a man who spoke his mind

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The Duke of Edinburgh will forever be remembered as the man who spoke his mind, amusing and offending in equal measure during decades at the Queen's side.

Between 1947 and when he retired from public service, Prince Philip carried out 22,220 solo engagements, undertook 637 foreign visits and gave 5,496 speeches.

During those, he became well known for his throwaway comments, insults and frank remarks.

Here are some of the prince’s controversial quotes:

Speaking in 1966: "British women can't cook".

To Elton John about his gold Aston Martin in 2001: “Oh, it’s you that owns that ghastly car, is it?”

To singer Tom Jones after the 1969 Royal Variety Performance: "What do you gargle with, pebbles?"

On a visit to Canada in 1969: "I declare this thing open, whatever it is."

Read more: Prince Philip death: The Duke of Edinburgh dies, aged 99

To Simon Kelner, republican editor of The Independent, at a reception at Windsor Castle: “What are you doing here?” Kelner answered: “I was invited, sir” to which Philip replied: “Well, you didn’t have to come.”

During the 1981 recession: "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed".

“You can take it from me the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”

Shouting from the deck of Britannia in Belize in 1994 to the Queen: "Yak, yak, yak; come on get a move on."

Referring to the Second World War while speaking about stress counselling for servicemen in 1995: "We didn't have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking 'Are you all right? Are you sure you don't have a ghastly problem?' You just got on with it."

At a party in 2004: “Bugger the table plan, give me my dinner!”

To a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland, in 1995: “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?”

When presented with a hamper of goods by the US ambassador in 1999: “Where’s the Southern Comfort?”

Speaking on the call to ban firearms after the Dunblane shooting: "If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?"

Referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who did not recognise him in 1997: "Bloody silly fool!"

About a fusebox in a factory in 1999: "It looks as if it was put in by an Indian."

To young deaf people in Cardiff, in 1999, about a school's steel band: "Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf."

When asked to stroke a koala in Australia in 1992: "Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease."

To a Briton in Budapest, Hungary, in 1993: "You can't have been here that long - you haven't got a pot belly."

To a wealthy islander in the Cayman Islands in 1994: "Aren't most of you descended from pirates?"

To a student in 1998 who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea: "You managed not to get eaten, then?"

In 1956: “It’s my custom to say something flattering to begin with so I shall be excused if I put my foot in it later on.”

At a trade fair in Germany in 1997, he welcomed German Chancellor Helmut Kohl as "Reichskanzler" - the last German leader to use the title was Adolf Hitler.

To 13-year-old Andrew Adams in Salford in 2001: "You're too fat to be an astronaut."

To the Aircraft Research Association in 2002: “If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort – provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly."

To the President of Nigeria, who was in national dress, in 2003: “You look like you’re ready for bed!”

While watching Sir Elton John perform at the Royal Variety Performance in 2001: "I wish he'd turn the microphone off."

Talking to a successful aborigine entrepreneur in Australia in 2002: "Do you still throw spears at each other?"

On Stoke-on-Trent, during a visit in 1997: “Ghastly.”

To a young female officer on Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, in 2002: "You look like a suicide bomber."

To newsreader Michael Buerk in 2004, when told he knew about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Awards: “That’s more than you know about anything else then.”

To a blind woman outside Exeter Cathedral, 2002: "Do you know they're now producing eating dogs for anorexics?"

To designer Stephen Judge in July 2009: "Well, you didn't design your beard too well, did you?"

In 1987: “I never see any home cooking – all I get is fancy stuff.”

To businessman Atul Patel at a reception for British Indians in October 2009: “There's a lot of your family in tonight.”

To a 24-year-old Sea Cadet when she told him she also worked in a nightclub in March 2010: “Do you work in a strip club?”

To Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie about a piece of tartan at a papal reception in Edinburgh in September 2010: “Do you have a pair of knickers made out of this?”

On approaching his 90th birthday in 2011: “Bits are beginning to drop off.”

When asked by a VIP at a local airport how his flight was, Philip asked: “Have you ever flown in a plane?” The VIP answered: “Oh yes, sir, many times”, to which Philip replied: “Well, it was just like that.”

To David Miller, who drives a mobility scooter, at the Valentine Mansion in Redbridge in March 2012: “How many people have you knocked over this morning on that thing?”

To a 25-year-old council worker, who was wearing a dress with a zip running the length of its front, on a Jubilee visit to Bromley, Kent, in May 2012: “I would get arrested if I unzipped that dress.”

To a Filipino nurse at a Luton hospital in February 2013: “The Philippines must be half empty as you're all here running the NHS.”

When offered wine in Rome in 2000: “I don’t care what kind it is, just get me a beer!”

To an RAF photographer in July 2015: “Just take the f***ing picture.”

To a pensioner on a visit to the Charterhouse almshouse for elderly men in February 2017: “You look starved.”

In response to questions on when the Prince of Wales would succeed to the throne: “Are you asking me if the Queen is going to die?”

On a gunman who tried to kidnap the Princess Royal in 1974: “If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she would have given him a hell of a time while in captivity.”

In response to a photographer covering a royal visit to India falling out of a tree: “I hope he breaks his bloody neck.”

On the Princess Royal: “If it doesn't fart or eat hay, she's not interested.”

On marriage: “When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.”

To the matron of a Caribbean hospital in 1966: “You have mosquitoes. I have the press.”

To Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner: “It's a pleasant change to be in a country that isn't ruled by its people.”

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