PRINCE PHILIP served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War straight from school in 1939.

He served aboard HMS Ramillies in 1940 and later the battleship Valiant in Alexandria, being mentioned in dispatches during action in 1941.

He also served on HMS Wallace, which took part in the D-Day landings.

It is incorrect to assume medals are only for acts of gallantry, many are struck as commemoration medals, a huge amount for services to the crown, and in public recognition of deeds done in the public service.

Mr Peacock (HAS, May 24) asked readers to enlighten him, for what it is worth his bias to the Royal Family does him no credit though I am grateful to his father and others of that generation.

G Wild, Richmond.

MICK PEACOCK wonders how it is that Prince Charles can appear to have so many medals.

The simple answer is that his mother gave them to him, unlike Mike’s father who honourably earned his in battle.

Decorations with such ludicrous titles as the Order of the Bath and the Royal Victorian Order or the Order of the Thistle were concocted by ancestors of the present Royal Family, presumably to make the recipients feel more important and the rest of society to feel suitably humble and deferential.

There is much to criticise in America but, sensibly, all men are addressed as “mister”, even the president and former presidents, until the day they die.

Eric Gendle, Middlesbrough.