{"id":670642,"date":"2026-01-03T06:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670642\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T06:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:54:22","slug":"duke-of-edinburghs-award-alumni-asked-for-memories-to-mark-70th-anniversary-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670642\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Award alumni asked for memories to mark 70th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes and TV chef Matt Tebbutt are two of the celebrities who have reminisced about their efforts earning the coveted bronze, silver or gold honours when younger.<\/p>\n

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, DofE chairwoman of trustees, whose daughter Carys achieved her gold award last year, said: \u201cIn seven decades of the DofE charity, we\u2019ve learned that there\u2019s no limit to what young people can achieve when they are given the right opportunities, even when external circumstances are tough.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe late Duke of Edinburgh hosting the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Award gold award presentations at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur founder HRH Prince Philip once said, \u2018There is more in you than you might think\u2019 and the DofE helps young people realise this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former paralympic icon added: \u201cAs we celebrate 70 years of the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Award, we\u2019re recognising DofE participants past and present, and the incredible volunteers who make their journey possible \u2014 we\u2019d love anyone with a connection to the charity to celebrate with us by sharing their memories on DofE.org.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late Duke of Edinburgh founded his eponymous awards scheme in 1956 to help teenage boys leaving school develop life skills and confidence by completing tasks before entering National Service, and it has grown into a youth achievement programme both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

During\u00a0the past 70 years more than 2.5 million young people in the UK have achieved a bronze award, 886,000 silver, and 353,000 gold, while overseas 1.2 million 14 to 24-year-olds participated in the scheme last year.<\/p>\n

To mark the 70th anniversary, the DofE charity has released never-before-seen items from its archive, including Philip\u2019s annotated draft speech for his segment in The Way Ahead \u2014 the first DofE promotional film, released in 1958.<\/p>\n

\"Edward,Edward, in his role as patron of the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Award charity, taking part in a cookery class during a visit to Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

John Green, 85, from London, took part in Philip\u2019s pilot DofE programme in the 1950s and was among the first boys to receive their gold award from the late duke at Buckingham Palace on June 4 1958.<\/p>\n

John\u00a0was introduced to the awards scheme at his boxing club and started with his silver DofE, choosing photography, first aid and athletics for his sectional activities, and explored the South Downs for his expedition.<\/p>\n

Sharing his story to mark the charity\u2019s 70th year, John said: \u201cIt was important to do the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Award because it gave young people like myself the opportunity to do something that we weren\u2019t encouraged to do at home or school. No one can imagine what life was like then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s Award, I turned out OK and didn\u2019t do too badly; it was all down to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip\u2019s son Edward inherited his father\u2019s title of Duke of Edinburgh in 2023, two years after Philip\u2019s death, and that year became patron of the charity and the international award.<\/p>\n

\"TheDame Kelly Holmes achieved her DofE silver award while at school (Jordan Pettitt\/PA)<\/p>\n

Edward, who achieved his gold award in 1986 and has been associated with the charity for 30 years, said in 2023: \u201cBeing asked to take on the role after my father is a particular honour and quite a responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cSustaining and enhancing what is arguably his greatest legacy around the world matters a great deal to me, as does pursuing the awards\u2019 long-term ambition of universal access so that every eligible young person has the opportunity to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dame Kelly, who achieved her silver award, said: \u201cI have amazing memories of my DofE\u00a0while I was at school, like camping, getting lost and laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provided an opportunity to challenge myself, learn new things. Working in the community was great although hard work as a landscape gardener. It is something that I still talk about with my schoolfriends to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes and TV chef Matt Tebbutt are two of the celebrities who have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-670642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115829858312144055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}