'I declare this thing open, whatever it is': The gaffe-prone Duke who often said what he shouldn't (although the public loved him for it)

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At times witty and at other times insensitive, Prince Philip has become known for being the most gaffe-prone member of the Royal Family, not shy of expressing his uncensored and politically incorrect opinions on a variety of subjects.

The Queen's 95-year-old husband, who has announced he will retire from royal duties in the Autumn, is renowned for his risque, off-the-cuff remarks while carrying out official engagements. 

From addressing Aborigines on a state visit to Australia in March 2002 and asking if they 'still throw spears at one another', to asking singer Tom Jones if he 'gargled with pebbles' following the 1969 Royal Variety performance, his comments have been toe curling and hilarious in equal measures.

In 1966 the Duke declared 'British women can't cook', while in one of his most infamous outbursts on a state visit in 1986, he said that British students would become 'slitty-eyed' if they stayed in China.  

Having spent nearly 70 years as the Queen's companion the tempestuous Duke has become famed for spicing up even the dullest of royal engagements but his unwavering, forthright style and devotion to duty has endeared him to the nation.

Here, we round up some of the legendary, no-nonsense remarks from the longest serving - and perhaps most amusing - consort in British history.

1966: 'British women can't cook' (in Britain in 1966).

1969: 'What do you gargle with, pebbles?' (speaking to singer Tom Jones after the 1969 Royal Variety Performance).

1969: 'I declare this thing open, whatever it is.' (on a visit to Canada in 1969).

1981: 'Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed' (during the 1981 recession).

In a state visit to Australia in March 2002, the Prince asked Aborigines: 'Do you still throw spears at each other?' Cultural park manager William Brim replied: 'No, we don't do that any more'

1986: 'If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.' (at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting).

1988: 'It looks like a tart's bedroom.' (on seeing plans for the Duke and Duchess of York's house at Sunninghill Park in 1988)

1994: 'Yak, yak, yak; come on get a move on.' (shouted from the deck of Britannia in Belize in 1994 to the Queen who was chatting to her hosts on the quayside). 

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.' (about the Second World War commenting on modern stress counselling for servicemen in 1995).

1995: 'How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?' (to a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland, during a 1995 walkabout).

1996: '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?' (in 1996, amid calls to ban firearms after the Dunblane shooting).

In one of his most infamous outbursts, the Duke of Edinburgh said that British students would become 'slitty-eyed' if they stayed in China. The state visit in 1986 became renowned for the incident, after he advised the youngsters: 'If you stay here much longer you will all be slitty-eyed'. In a BBC documentary to mark his 90th birthday, he remarked: 'I'd forgotten about it. But for one particular reporter who overheard it, it wouldn't have come out'

1997: 'Bloody silly fool!' (in 1997, referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who did not recognise him).

1999: 'It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.' (pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh in 1999).

1999: 'Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.' (to young deaf people in Cardiff, in 1999, referring to a school's steel band).

1982: 'They must be out of their minds.' (in the Solomon Islands, in 1982, when he was told that the annual population growth was 5%).

1984: 'You are a woman, aren't you?' (In Kenya, in 1984, after accepting a small gift from a local woman).

1986: 'If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed.' (to British students in China, during the 1986 state visit).

In 2013, spotting pretty Hannah Jackson, 25, on a trip with his wife to Bromley in Kent, the elderly royal turned to the policeman standing next to her and gestured towards her eye-catching peplum-style red dress which had a zip running the length of its front. 'I would get arrested if I unzipped that dress!' he exclaimed

1991: 'Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species in the world.' (in Thailand, in 1991, after accepting a conservation award).

1992: 'Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.' (in Australia, in 1992, when asked to stroke a Koala bear).

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

1994: 'Aren't most of you descended from pirates?' (to a wealthy islander in the Cayman Islands in 1994).

1998: 'You managed not to get eaten, then?' (suggesting to a student in 1998 who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea that tribes there were still cannibals).

1997: In Germany, in 1997, he welcomed German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at a trade fair as 'Reichskanzler' - the last German leader who used the title was Adolf Hitler.

Royal quip: The Duke of Edinburgh told this Filipino nurse at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital her country must be 'half empty', because so many of her compatriots have come to the UK to work for the NHS

2001: 'You're too fat to be an astronaut.' (to 13-year-old Andrew Adams who told Philip he wanted to go into space. Salford, 2001).

2001: 'I wish he'd turn the microphone off.' (muttered at the Royal Variety Performance as he watched Sir Elton John perform, 2001).

2002: 'Do you still throw spears at each other?' (In Australia in 2002 talking to a successful aborigine entrepreneur).

2002: 'You look like a suicide bomber.' (to a young female officer wearing a bullet-proof vest on Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, in 2002).

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

While visiting a London community centre group in July 2015, Philip asked a group of women 'who do you sponge off?' Ms Zamir, who founded the Chadwell Heath Asian Women's Network which meets at the centre, said: 'The Duke said to us "who do you sponge off?" We're all married so it's our husbands. He was just teasing and it's similar to what I call my husband - the wallet'

2009: 'Well, you didn't design your beard too well, did you?' (to designer Stephen Judge about his tiny goatee beard in July 2009).

2009: 'There's a lot of your family in tonight.' (after looking at the name badge of businessman Atul Patel at a Palace reception for British Indians in October 2009).

2010: 'Do you work it a strip club?' (to 24-year-old Barnstaple Sea Cadet Elizabeth Rendle when she told him she also worked in a nightclub in March 2010).

2010: 'Do you have a pair of knickers made out of this?' pointing to some tartan (to Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie a papal reception in Edinburgh in September 2010).

2011: 'Bits are beginning to drop off.' (on approaching his 90th birthday, 2011)

2012: 'How many people have you knocked over this morning on that thing?' (meeting disabled David Miller who drives a mobility scooter at the Valentine Mansion in Redbridge in March 2012)

At a 400-strong Buckingham Palace reception for British Indians in October 2009, Prince Philip told Indian businessman Atul Patel: 'There's a lot of your family in tonight'. The Prince is pictured during the night

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

2013: 'The Philippines must be half empty as you're all here running the NHS.' (on meeting a Filipino nurse at a Luton hospital in February 2013)

2013: 'Most stripping is done by hand.' (to 83-year-old Mars factory worker Audrey Cook when discussing how she used to strip or cut Mars Bars by hand in April 2013)

2013: '(Children) go to school because their parents don't want them in the house.' (prompting giggles from Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban after campaigning for the right of girls to go to school without fear - October 2013)

2015: 'Just take the f***ing picture.' (losing patience with an RAF photographer at events to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain - July 2015)

2017: 'You look starved.' (to a pensioner on a visit to the Charterhouse almshouse for elderly men - February 2017)

In 2015 an impatient Prince Philip was caught on camera during a photocall for the Battle of Britain and appeared to say: 'Just take the f***ing picture'

Other quotes:

• 'I'm just a bloody amoeba.' (on the Queen's decision that their children should be called Windsor, not Mountbatten).
• 'Gentlemen, I think it is time we pulled our fingers out.'(to the Industrial Co-Partnership Association on Britain's inefficient industries in 1961).
• 'Are you asking me if the Queen is going to die?' (on being questioned on when the Prince of Wales would succeed to the throne)
• 'If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she would have given him a hell of a time while in captivity.' (On a gunman who tried to kidnap the Princess Royal in 1974).
• 'I hope he breaks his bloody neck.' (when a photographer covering a royal visit to India fell out of a tree)
• 'If it doesn't fart or eat hay, she's not interested.' (on the Princess Royal)
• 'When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.' (on marriage).
• 'It's a pleasant change to be in a country that isn't ruled by its people.' (to Alfredo Stroessner, the Paraguayan dictator).
• 'Where did you get that hat?' (supposedly to Queen at her Coronation).  

The Duke of Edinburgh is presented with a pair of Bermuda shorts from David Hampshire (left) during a visit to the Naval Dockyard in Hamilton, Bermuda, in 2009

The Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by Janet Barnes, CEO of York Museums Trust, studies a mannequin on display in a medieval costumes exhibition designed by students in 2012