Board meetings were called, frantic phone calls made. Several took the decision to end their association with immediate effect. They included the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, the Golf Foundation, the Children’s Foundation, the Outward Bound Trust and the British Science Association. The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children’s Fund said: “We felt that as a children's charity it was not appropriate for him to remain patron.” WPA Pool/Getty Images When Prince Andrew announced in 2019 he was “stepping back from public duties for the foreseeable future”, many of his charities found themselves in a difficult position.