As Prince Philip approaches his 85th birthday, the House of Windsor will be anxiously hoping that the Duke of Edinburgh will maintain the utmost discretion when meeting Royal well wishers. In the meantime, the press and everyone else on the planet will be praying for Philip to deliver another blistering gaffe which could quite possibly insult an entire nation or religion in the space of a single sentence.

In homage to the Duke of Diplomacy and in recognition of his lifelong efforts to foster fraternal international relations across the globe, we've compiled a dossier of our very favourite Philip foot-in-mouth displays...

Food and Drink
The year is 1966, famous for England's World Cup victory and one of Philip's earliest and most celebrated faux pas. Addressing the audience at a Scottish Women's Institute display, the Duke provoked outrage by claiming that "British women can't cook."

Over the years, Philip has continued to display a culinary insight that would put Delia, Jamie and Gordon to shame. Making a speech at a World Wildlife Fund meeting in 1986, Prince Philip could be heard imparting this wisdom, "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."

Nature & Wildlife
The koala bear, symbol of a nation and universally accepted as the embodiment of fluffy and cute. On a visit to Australia in 1992, Philip was asked if he would like to stroke a Koala. "Oh no", came the reply, "I might catch some ghastly disease". A year earlier, addressing an audience in Thailand after collecting a conservation award Philip remarked, "Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species in the world."

Entertainment
The Duke of Edinburgh has consistently displayed an enviable appreciation of the arts and popular culture. At a private lunch in the 1960s, Philip compared the singing of entertainer Adam Faith to the sound of bath water going down a plug hole. In the same decade, Philip enraged the legendary Tom Jones by asking him, "What do you gargle with, pebbles?”

Anthropology
Australia always serves to bring out the very best in Philip. In conversation with an Aborigine leader he asked him, "Do you still throw spears at each other?” Sharp and observant as ever, Philip once thanked a Kenyan woman who presented him with a gift with a quizzical, "You are a woman aren't you?” His mastery of the history of the Cayman Islands was evident in 1994 when he asked an Islander, "Aren't most of you descended from pirates?”

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, we salute you.