Following the recent news of the death of Prince Philip, I thought this photograph of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh and the world’s first hovercraft, the SRN-1 might be of interest to your readers.
This photograph was taken in July 1959 and shows the SRN-1 at Saunders-Roe Columbine Slipway in East Cowes, with the Duke shaking hands with my father, Bob Strath.
Bob was an aeronautical engineer at Saunders-Roe and in 1959 he was master observer on the SRN-1.
He much enjoyed meeting Prince Philip but on this first meeting he did receive a mild rebuke (from an employee of Saunders Roe, not the Duke nor his staff!) for being above the Prince when shaking his hand.
Bob had got caught on the SRN-1 deck when the Prince made a typical diversion from his scheduled route to the craft.
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