As a Gold Award Holder and latterly a Director with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, I was very privileged to meet HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on a number of occasions. Doing my own Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award completely changed my life and I once thanked HRH for his vision to create the programme, which has stood the test of time. He was extremely humble, emphasizing how it was all other people’s hard work. He was always very passionate about the DofE and he was keen to ensure that young people did the programme because they wanted to do it, and that it was as relevant today as when it started in 1956. His ability to interact with people of all ages he had only just met, and to make them laugh was legendary. I was also amazed by his ability to pick up on conversations from previous years. I loved that one young person at a Gold Presentation at Hillsborough Castle described him as ‘cool’ and at that stage he was 96! We will miss him.