Queen was at Philip’s bedside when he died: Charles leaves Windsor Castle

The Queen is thought to have been at the bedside of her ‘beloved husband’ of 73 years Prince Philip when he passed away ‘peacefully’ at Windsor Castle yesterday.

The Duke of Edinburgh, the nation’s longest-serving consort, died in his private apartment just two months and a day before what would have been his 100th birthday. 

Though palace officials declined to ‘go into any specifics’ about the nature of his passing, it is understood his frail condition worsened overnight on Thursday and that insiders had warned he was ‘gravely ill’. However, any talk of whisking the elderly duke to hospital was reportedly quickly dismissed by the Queen.  

Philip, who recently spent a month being treated for an infection and a pre-existing heart condition, is thought to have died suddenly and unexpectedly, but peacefully in the company of his dear ‘Lilibet’. The Telegraph reported that the duke had wanted to pass away ‘in his own bed’ and ‘on his own terms’. 

One well-placed source told the paper: ‘He spent most of the four weeks he was in hospital trying to get home. They operated on his heart in a bid to give him a little longer, maybe with the 100th birthday in mind. But he didn’t really care about that.’ They added: ‘There is no way he would have wanted to die in hospital.’ 

In a short but poignant statement at noon, Buckingham Palace said: ‘It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

‘His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will be made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss.’ 

As tributes poured in from around the world, the Palace’s focus was on the royal family’s aching personal bereavement. ‘They are a family in mourning,’ one official said last night. 

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, was seen leaving Windsor Castle hours after the news of his father’s passing. The Prince of Wales, 72, drove from his Highgrove Estate in Gloucestershire to the 94-year-old monarch’s Berkshire residence ahead of the public announcement of the duke’s passing.

Sitting in the front passenger seat of a silver Tesla, the prince looked on as he pulled away. It is not known whether Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had accompanied him on what is their 16th wedding anniversary. 

A source close to Charles said he was ‘comforted’ by the fact he and his father had been in touch more regularly than ever in recent weeks and months – and that they ‘had said all the things that needed to be said’.

The source said: ‘It is some small comfort today that the prince was in much more regular contact with his father in recent weeks and months than he otherwise might have been. He was the only family member who was able to visit him in hospital and he was at Windsor as recently as the week before last. They spoke a great deal.’

Friends were at pains to point out that the relationship between father and son was also warmer than it had ever been. One said: ‘The idea that their relationship was strained, certainly in recent years, couldn’t have been further from the truth. And that’s an important thing to remember in all that is being written.

‘There was genuine love, affection and understanding there. Which is all anyone holds dear at the end.’ 

There was no immediate personal reaction from the wider Royal Family, such was their grief. But in a previously recorded tribute to his father, Philip’s youngest son Prince Edward told ITV: ‘My parents have been such a fantastic support to each other during all those years and all those events and all those tours and events overseas. To have someone that you confide in and smile about things that you perhaps could not in public.

‘To be able to share that is immensely important.’

Recalling his humour ‘which always came through and the twinkle in his eye’, Edward added that he would remember his father ‘for what he has done in his public life for all the organisations he has supported and influenced’. Philip’s daughter Princess Anne told the broadcaster: ‘Without him life will be completely different.’

Harry and Meghan posted a message on their website thanking the duke for his service. ‘You will be greatly missed,’ it read. The prince was last night said to be ‘likely’ to fly from his home in the US, although it is unclear whether his heavily pregnant wife will join him. 

At around 10.40am there was a flurry of police activity at the castle before Prince Andrew, who lives closest at Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate, arrived at a back entrance to the Queen’s private apartments five minutes later. Then at 11.15am another family member, believed to be Prince Edward, arrived to console their devastated mother.  

News of Philip’s death, after being confirmed by the on-call royal doctor and disseminated to members of the Royal Family, was relayed to the Prime Minister and relevant arms of government – via a simple message: ‘Forth Bridge is down’, the official codeword for the Duke of Edinburgh’s death. Around the country, Union flags began to be flown at half-mast and will remain so until after the funeral next Saturday.

As the Queen lost her husband, and the country mourns one of its greatest servants, it also emerged: 

• Her Majesty will enter a period of mourning with officials planning a royal ceremonial funeral in St George’s Chapel,  Windsor, after Philip insisted he didn’t want the ‘fuss’ of lying in state. But well-laid plans have been hit by Covid restrictions and the public already urged not to consider gathering in the streets for the event; 
• Large crowds stood at Buckingham Palace and at Windsor Castle to lay flowers – before the Government asked them to disperse and stop laying flowers;
• Flags around the UK are at half-mast – and will remain so for at least eight days – as Boris Johnson leads tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh, who the PM said has ‘helped to steer the Royal Family and the monarchy so that it remains an institution indisputably vital to the balance and happiness of our national life’;
• US president Joe Biden said: ‘Jill and I are keeping the Queen and to Prince Philip’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in our hearts during this time 
• Commonwealth leaders including prime ministers of Australia, Canada and India thank Prince Philip for his decades of public service and send ‘love and deepest condolences’ to Her Majesty and all the Royal family; 
• Philip’s death came at a time of great turmoil for the Royal Family after Harry and Meghan’s emigration to the US and bombshell Oprah interview. The Sussexes have not said if they will be returning to the UK;
• Prince Charles, Prince William and other senior royals are yet to give their own personal tributes as ordinary Britons shared their own hilarious and poignant memories of meeting Prince Philip;

A period of official mourning has begun that will last for a month.

Uniformed staff from the Royal Household and officers in the Armed Forces will wear mourning bands.

Following tradition, a formal notice announcing Philip’s death was posted on the gates at Buckingham Palace by two mask-wearing members of staff. But it was removed within an hour in an effort to deter crowds from forming during a time of pandemic.

Palace officials asked members of the public not to gather outside any royal residence and to consider making a donation to charity instead of leaving flowers. An online book of condolence was set up on the royal website www.royal.uk.

It is likely that Covid requirements will force wholesale changes to the funeral plans, which have been in place for many decades.

Philip’s coffin should have been brought from Windsor to London to lie in state, but such an undertaking, which could attract crowds, is likely to be scrapped. Instead it will remain at Windsor until the funeral.

Philip was the longest-serving consort in British history and retired from public life in 2017, largely moving to Sandringham in Norfolk. At the start of the first lockdown last year he returned to Windsor to be with his wife and according to sources they have since enjoyed some of their happiest months together.

Boris Johnson paid tribute last night to the duke, saying he would be remembered for his ‘steadfast support’ of the Queen.

The Prime Minister added: ‘He was an environmentalist, and a champion of the natural world long before it was fashionable.

‘With his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme he shaped and inspired the lives of countless young people and at literally tens of thousands of events he fostered their hopes and encouraged their ambitions.’ 

Britain entered eight days of mourning ahead of Prince Philip’s expected funeral next Saturday, after The Queen announced with ‘deep sorrow’ the death of her husband at the age of 99.

Philip was her ‘strength and guide’ throughout their 73-year marriage and her 69-year reign, as crowds of mourners laying flowers and tributes at palaces became so large they were told to disperse because of the pandemic.

The Duke of Edinburgh spent his final days at Windsor Castle with his wife, who he lovingly called Lilibet throughout their long life together, after a 28-night stay in hospital having been admitted in mid-February for an infection and a pre-existing heart condition.

Her Majesty announced her husband’s death at midday as the Union Flag was lowered to half-mast outside Buckingham Palace, in Downing Street and on public buildings across the UK and Commonwealth. Westminster Abbey will ring its bells 99 times in his memory from 6pm.  

A frail Philip was last seen leaving hospital for Windsor on March 16. His death plunges the nation and the Royal Family into mourning and brings to an end his lifetime of service to Britain and to Elizabeth, the Queen who adored him since her teens. The couple shared their 73rd wedding anniversary last November and he was due to turn 100 on June 10 this year. 

Hundreds gathered in the spring sunshine at the palace and in Windsor, where many hugged and wiped away tears as they laid flowers in his memory – and left messages of love and support for the Queen and her family. 

But as the crowds grew this afternoon the Government urged people to stay away and not to leave bouquets for public health reasons because Britain remains in lockdown due to Covid-19. The notice announcing the Duke of Edinburgh’s death at the gates of Buckingham Palace even had to be removed to maintain social distancing, officials said, and police horses even arrived to help marshal mourners.

His funeral will be a small family service at St George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle before the duke is buried in Frogmore Gardens, where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were laid to rest. The date has not been set officially, but sources claim it could be on Saturday, April 17.

More details will emerge in the next few days, with the plan nicknamed ‘Operation Forth Bridge’, but the public have already been urged to stay away to avoid spreading Covid-19 and watch it on TV at home instead. A state funeral including a flotilla of boats on the Thames to mark her husband’s life looks impossible due to covid restrictions, but the Duke was said to have disliked the idea because he ‘didn’t want the fuss’. 

The plans for the funeral were posted online by the government – before swiftly being taken down again. They appeared to confirm claims from sources.  

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle today paid a short tribute to Prince Philip following news of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death. In a post on their Archwell website, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex paid tribute to his grandfather with the two line message: ‘Thank you for your services… You will be greatly missed.’

The 21-word post, which takes up the whole of the website’s main page, was first revealed by their friend Omid Scobie, co-author of their biography Finding Freedom.

Harry is expected to return to the UK and be among the small number of mourners at the funeral, but it is much less clear whether his pregnant wife Meghan will return, weeks after the couple accused the Royal Family of racism in their bombshell Oprah interview while Philip lay in hospital.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s title will eventually pass on to his youngest son, Prince Edward, it was confirmed today – but he will have to wait until after the death of his mother and his brother Charles becomes king because of royal protocols. 

The cause of Philip’s death has not been made public, but Philip had his first Covid-19 vaccination with the Queen on January 9, with his second one due around a week ago. It is not known if it was administered.

Parliament will be recalled from its Easter recess on Monday – a day earlier than planned – where MPs will give tributes in the Commons. The Conservatives, Labour and other major parties have suspended campaigning for the local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections in May out of respect for the duke.    

Her Majesty, who remains at Windsor Castle with her husband, has now started an eight-day period of mourning. She will not carry out any duties, even in private, while laws will not be given the Royal Assent and affairs of state will also be paused. 

Boris Johnson led the tributes to the Queen’s husband and addressed the nation outside No 10 Downing Street shortly after the announcement. He said: ‘We give thanks, as a nation and a kingdom, for the extraordinary life and work of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’.

He added: ‘Speaking on their golden wedding anniversary, Her Majesty said that our country owed her husband ‘a greater debt than he would ever claim or we shall ever know’ and I am sure that estimate is correct So we mourn today with Her Majesty The Queen.

‘We remember the duke for all of this and above all for his steadfast support for Her Majesty the Queen. Not just as her consort, by her side every day of her reign, but as her husband, her ‘strength and stay’, of more than 70 years.

‘And it is to Her Majesty, and her family, that our nation’s thoughts must turn today. Because they have lost not just a much-loved and highly respected public figure, but a devoted husband and a proud and loving father, grandfather and, in recent years, great-grandfather.’ Mr Johnson also praised his Duke of Edinburgh scheme, which has ‘shaped and inspired the lives of countless young people’.  

A period of mourning following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh will see planned Government announcements and ministerial appearances cancelled.

The news from Buckingham Palace also means Boris Johnson’s plan to have a pint to celebrate the easing of England’s lockdown on April 12 has been postponed.  

An online book of condolence is now available on the royal website for those who wish to send a personal message of condolence, the royal family’s Twitter account announced.

It added: ‘During the current public health situation, Books of Condolence will not be available for the public to sign.

‘The Royal Family ask that members of the public consider making a donation to a charity instead of leaving floral tributes in memory of The Duke’.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said: ‘As we recover and rebuild after the terrible trial of the coronavirus pandemic, we will need fortitude and a deep sense of commitment to serving others. Throughout his life Prince Philip displayed those qualities in abundance, and I pray that we can take inspiration from his example’. 

Officials at Buckingham Palace are now preparing for a royal ceremonial funeral at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in keeping with Philip’s wishes, with a military procession also expected in London – Covid laws permittingUntil his death, Philip was the longest-serving consort in British history and the oldest partner of a reigning monarch. Despite his ill health, the Queen remained resolutely stoic in Prince Philip’s final days and took part in her first royal engagement of 2021 last week. 

Westminster Abbey will toll its tenor bell once every 60 seconds, 99 times, from 6pm on Friday evening in tribute to the duke, the abbey said.

Stewards have put a barrier around floral tributes placed at the gates of Buckingham Palace, aimed at preventing overcrowding.

Members of the public were advised to join a queue to take pictures and place flowers, with stewards urging people not to gather in large crowds.

More than 100 floral tributes – ranging from bunches of daffodils to fuller bouquets, many with notes attached – and two Union flags have been placed at the gates by mourners.

Traffic is being diverted in some areas of Windsor town centre close to Windsor Castle, as crowds continue to gather.

A number of wellwishers have laid flowers at the Henry VIII Gate in the town, with a number of other tributes left at the Cambridge Gate.

The Queen is in the depths of ‘deep sorrow’ following her husband’s death. 

‘He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,’ Her Majesty said at their Golden Wedding banquet in 1997. ‘I and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.’

The quizzical, witty, faithful – and often controversial – the Duke was the Queen’s greatest source of support, her confidant and the man she relied on above all others. 

He was a great-grandfather of ten, with the most recent addition to his wider family being Zara and Mike Tindall’s baby son Lucas Philip Tindall on March 21 – soon after Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s son August, who was born on February 9. 

Tributes have been paid by political and religious leaders to the ‘much-loved’ Duke of Edinburgh after his death at the age of 99.

Speaking on a podium outside Downing Street on Friday, Boris Johnson said Philip would be remembered for his ‘steadfast support’ of the Queen, as well as his awards scheme which ‘inspired’ countless young people.

The Prime Minister said: ‘He was an environmentalist, and a champion of the natural world long before it was fashionable.

‘With his Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme he shaped and inspired the lives of countless young people and at literally tens of thousands of events he fostered their hopes and encouraged their ambitions.’

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said the duke ’embodied a generation that we will never see again’.

‘Australians send our love and deepest condolences to her Majesty and all the Royal family. The Commonwealth family joins together in sorrow and thanksgiving for the loss and life of Prince Philip. God bless from all here in Australia,’ he tweeted.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said Philip was an ‘outstanding example of Christian service’.

In a statement, he said: ‘On the occasions when I met him, I was always struck by his obvious joy at life, his enquiring mind and his ability to communicate to people from every background and walk of life.

‘He was a master at putting people at their ease and making them feel special.

‘The legacy he leaves is enormous.’

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the UK has ‘lost an extraordinary public servant in Prince Philip’.

He said: ‘He will be remembered most of all for his extraordinary commitment and devotion to the Queen.’

The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, highlighted the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award as ‘an enormous part of Prince Philip’s legacy’.

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said she was ‘saddened’ by the news and sent her ‘personal and deepest condolences, and those of the Scottish government and people of Scotland, to Her Majesty the Queen and her family’.

Irish premier Micheal Martin tweeted: ‘Saddened to hear of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

‘Our thoughts and prayers are with Queen Elizabeth and the people of the United Kingdom at this time.’

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted that his thoughts were with the royal family.

He said: ‘(Philip) had a distinguished career in the military and was at the forefront of many community service initiatives. May his soul rest in peace.’

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted: ‘I am saddened to hear of the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip. I would like to extend my sincere sympathy to Her Majesty The Queen, the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom on this very sad day.’

Former prime minister Tony Blair said: ‘He will naturally be most recognised as a remarkable and steadfast support to the Queen over so many years. However, he should also be remembered and celebrated in his own right as a man of foresight, determination and courage.

‘He was often way ahead of his time in protection of the environment, in reconciliation between religious faiths and of course in the creation of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which remains one of the most innovative and effective programmes for the betterment of young people anywhere in the world.’  

Philip’s lifelong role was to ensure that he never let The Queen down and their long-lasting marriage was one of the world’s best known relationships.

Reflecting their love in her Diamond Jubilee speech to Parliament in 2012, the Elizabeth said: ‘During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure. Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.’

The couple married in November 1947 – she a 21-year-old sheltered princess, he a swaggering Royal Navy officer with Greek and Danish royal blood, who had only recently seen active service during World War Two.

From that moment, the day Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten became the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip – a private, enigmatic man of strong character – was always there, one step behind, ready to lend the Queen a helping hand.

Following his retirement from public life in August 2017, he kept a low public profile.

In recent months the couple have lived through the coronavirus pandemic together, at Sandringham in Norfolk, during a summer break at Balmoral Estate in Scotland and latterly in what was dubbed ‘HMS Bubble’ at Windsor Castle from October 2020.

The pair received their coronavirus inoculations together at Windsor in January, and the virus was quickly ruled out as the cause of his admission to London’s King Edward VII hospital on February 16.

Buckingham Palace had initially said it was a precautionary measure because the Duke was feeling unwell, and his grandson Prince William said after a week of treatment that he was ‘OK’ but doctors were ‘keeping an eye on him’.

The palace then revealed the Duke was being treated for an ‘infection’, with his youngest son Prince Edward adding that the Royal Family were ‘keeping our fingers crossed’.

But concerns grew when, after two weeks at the private King Edward VII, Philip was transferred to St Bartholomew’s NHS hospital in central London with the palace saying he would ‘undertake testing and observation for a pre-existing heart condition’.

He then underwent a heart operation and was transferred back to King Edward VII’s, before eventually leaving on March 16 and returning to Windsor Castle by car following 28 days in hospital. 

Philip’s eldest son Prince Charles, 72, paid him a half-hour visit during the first week of his treatment, making a 100-mile journey from Highgrove in Gloucestershire to the capital. Charles appeared emotional when he left. 

The monarchy was plunged into crisis while Philip was in hospital following the shocking allegations of racism made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

Harry and Meghan, who faced calls to postpone the interview because Philip was unwell, accused an unnamed royal, not the Queen nor the duke, of raising concerns about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone would be before he was born.

Meghan also told of how she begged for help when she was suicidal, but said the institution gave her no support. The Queen, 94, said the issues were concerning, but that ‘some recollections may vary’ and the matter was a family one that would be dealt with privately. 

Although Philip was in remarkably good health well into his 90s, he had battled ill health in recent years and spent Christmas 2011 in hospital when he was rushed in needing a heart stent. It was the first Christmas he and the Queen had spent apart in their then 64-year marriage.

It was those increasing health concerns that led to him stepping back from royal duties in 2017. He conducted the last of his 22,219 public engagements since the Queen ascended the throne in 1952 by meeting Royal Marines at Buckingham Palace.

Though he rarely made public appearances after his official retirement, Philip was pictured standing next to the Queen at the private wedding of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in Windsor in July 2020.

Other appearances included at the weddings of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018, and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in October 2018, both at Windsor Castle.

He also appeared at the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor, whose father is the Queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent, to Thomas Kingston in May 2019, and formally handed over his role as Colonel-in-Chief of the infantry regiment The Rifles to the Duchess of Cornwall at Windsor Castle in July 2020.

After his retirement, the Duke of Edinburgh spent much of his time at Windsor, and at Wood Farm, a small residence on the Queen’s private Sandringham estate, where he read, painted watercolours and wrote letters – with occasional visits to London.

Through his stewardship, he had a profound effect on the development of the British monarchy. In public, the Duke never attempted to upstage the woman he loved. In private, it was Philip that the Queen would defer to.

‘All too often, I fear, Prince Philip has had to listen to me speaking,’ the Queen said in the 1997 Golden Wedding address. ‘Frequently we have discussed my intended speech beforehand and, as you will imagine, his views have been expressed in a forthright manner.’

The Duke replied in his toast to his wife: ‘I think the main lesson we have learnt is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient in any happy marriage.

‘You can take it from me, the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.’

At home, he assumed the position of head of the family as the royal patriarch. Even as recently as November 2019, he held talks with Prince Charles at Sandringham to discuss the fallout from Prince Andrew’s disastrous TV interview over his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In April that year, the Duke had become the longest serving consort in British history and the oldest serving partner of a reigning monarch, while his wife became Britain’s longest reigning monarch and the world’s longest reigning serving monarch.

Like his great-great-grandfather Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s beloved husband, the Duke immersed himself in national life, yet managed to retain something of the sceptical spectator.

Some thought he was arrogant, rude and insensitive; others found him witty and fun.

He could be abrupt, outspoken and was not afraid of using colourful language. He was parodied for his bad-tempered outbursts and criticised for his legendary gaffes.

 

Philip once warned a group of Scottish students in China that they would become ‘slitty eyed’.

On another occasion, he pointed to a fusebox of loose wires in a Glasgow factory and remarked that it looked like it had been installed by an ‘Indian’.

He was well aware of his public perception, once telling former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth: ‘I have become a caricature. There we are. I’ve just got to accept it.’

There was further controversy in February 2019, when Philip voluntarily surrendered his driving licence, having flipped his Land Rover Freelander in a crash with a Kia near the Sandringham estate that left two women injured.

The Duke was a forceful man, often portrayed as short-tempered and rather off-hand in his manner.

Yet he had the ability to charm and could be relied upon to break the ice with his sense of humour and quick repartee.

The curious Duke would ask endless questions while on engagements, grilling and challenging his hosts persistently.

He had a no-fuss, no-nonsense manner that has been inherited by his daughter, the Princess Royal.

He was once said to have described himself as ‘a discredited Balkan prince of no particular merit or distinction’. He was never given – and apparently never coveted – the title of Prince Consort, traditionally how Queens’ husbands are styled.

He received little public adulation for his tireless charity work and support for the monarchy in difficult times.

He and the Queen witnessed the failure of three of their four children’s marriages and the fallout that followed, particularly the scandal surrounding Camilla Parker Bowles, who eventually married into The Firm.

More recently, they also endured the fallout from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to break away from Royal duties in January 2020 – dubbed Megxit.

One Royal expert, Ingrid Seward, claimed Philip would have been ‘more influential’ in challenging Harry over his decision to leave the Royal Family if he had been younger.

Further issues ensued when it was announced Harry and Meghan were going to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in a ‘tell-all’ chat – which they did not brief the Queen about in advance.

Then on February 19, Harry and Meghan were stripped of their prestigious patronages as the couple confirmed Megxit had become permanent. 

That came less than a week after the couple announced with a black-and-white photoshoot that Meghan was pregnant with their second child, later revealed to be a girl. 

Elizabeth and Philip also witnessed Prince Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019 over his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which saw the Duke of York deserted by many of his official charities and patronages.

The Royal Family also faced criticism for their response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The Duke was depicted as a tough, but caring father, amid speculation that his relationship with the Prince of Wales was not always the easiest.

But he guarded his privacy and refused to discuss such matters.

By almost any standard he was a remarkable character. He had all the qualities which, even without his royal status, would have led him to the top.

He was a successful naval officer and he was also a pilot of considerable ability.

In his leisure moments he was a good shot, a first-class polo player, an accomplished sailor, enthusiastic cricketer and international four-in-hand carriage driver.

He also enjoyed films, and is said to have made a surprise visit to the set of the Hatton Garden heist film King Of Thieves in 2018.

His themes were many but he regularly returned to the prickly subject of the British economy and also conservation, one of his great passions.

He could speak with authority on industry, science and nature.

One of the Duke’s most famous speeches was in 1961 when he told industrialists: ‘Gentlemen, I think it is time we pulled our fingers out.’

He often criticised exporters for not fighting hard enough for Britain abroad and hit out at the ‘I’m all right, Jack’ society for not pulling its weight at home.

Even in later life, the Duke was a modern man. He was always forward-thinking and often ahead of his time.

He was eating muesli 20 years before most people and drove around London in an electric car in an attempt to fight pollution.

As the world begins to mourn him, Philip will be remembered for the huge role he played in the lives of people in Britain and the Commonwealth, while the Queen now faces her greatest challenge of all as she leads the country for the first time without her loyal husband by her side.

There are those who believe that, had the Duke not married Princess Elizabeth, he would have been First Sea Lord. But he gave it all up for the woman he devoted himself to.

Writing to Princess Elizabeth – Lilibet as he called her – in 1946, he apologised for the ‘monumental cheek’ of turning up to Buckingham Palace uninvited.

‘Yet however contrite I feel, there is always a small voice that keeps saying ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’,’ he wrote.

‘Well did I venture, and I gained a wonderful time.’

Her Majesty’s biggest challenge: How the Queen must now go on without her ‘rock’ Philip beside her after one of the Royal Family’s most testing years

The loss of her beloved husband at the age of 99 will be one of the most traumatic experiences the Queen has ever had to face.

Together for more than 73 years, the Duke of Edinburgh has supported the monarch through the ups and down of her life and reign, including throughout the time they have spent together at Windsor Castle as part of ‘HMS Bubble’.

His death comes during one of the Royal Family’s most testing periods, with Buckingham Palace plunged into crisis following Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

As Philip languished in hospital, the CBS programme aired on March 7 and shook the monarchy to its core as the Sussexes made accusations of brazen racism within the royal ranks. 

And the Queen had to cope with all this while her husband was spending 28 days in hospital in London as he was receiving treatment at both King Edward VII’s Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital.

Both Philip and the Queen were cleared of being the culprit who expressed ‘concerns’ about ‘how dark’ Archie’s skin would be – but the claim has serious implications for the institution.

Although Philip stepped down from doing public engagements in 2017, he had been by the Queen’s side throughout the rollercoaster of the past year.

The monarch had to cope with Prince Harry’s apparent feud with Prince William and criticism of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex for taking private jet journeys despite speaking out on environmental issues.

Most recently she had to deal with the upset caused by Megxit, which Harry and Meghan decided to move to an £11million mansion in California rather than continue living in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.  

Then in January 2020 when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shocked the world by announcing their intention to step down as senior royals. 

Buckingham Palace said all were ‘saddened’ by their decision to permanently step down as working royals, but they remained ‘much loved members of the family’.

A statement added that the Queen had ‘written confirming that in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service’.

But the Sussexes hit back with a statement of their own, saying: ‘We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.’

Philip’s son Prince Charles, 72, visited him at King Edward VII Hospital in London on Saturday afternoon for half an hour after making a 100-mile journey from Highgrove in Gloucestershire to the capital, and appeared emotional when he left.

Royal expert Penny Junor suggested that while she did not know the reason for Charles’s visit, Harry is likely to have come up.

She said: ‘Momentous things are happening in the family at the moment and I suppose it’s perfectly possible that Charles wanted to go and talk to his father and reassure him about Harry.’

The Queen has, of course, previously experienced great loss. In 2002, her Golden Jubilee year, both her mother and sister died within weeks of one another. But Philip was at her side. 

There will be no chance to spend as much time as she needs out of the spotlight grieving, with an appearance at the Duke’s funeral in the full glare of the media beckoning within days.

The Queen, with all her training as head of state, is used to holding her emotions in check in public. 

Shortly after her father King George VI died, she was required to greet Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other dignitaries immediately on landing in London as the new Queen.

But sometimes the depth of her sadness has proved too much.

Just months after the Queen Mother died, tears rolled down her cheeks when she took on her late mother’s role at the poignant opening of the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey. 

During her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, she cut a solitary figure as she walked through St Paul’s Cathedral without the Duke, who was taken to hospital with a bladder infection.

Princess Eugenie, the couple’s granddaughter, described how the Queen and Philip were each other’s ‘rock’ and spoke of how difficult it had been for the Queen to be without her husband during the Diamond Jubilee.

‘They are the most incredibly supportive couple to each other,’ she told Sky News after the Jubilee.

‘Grandpa was unfortunately taken ill and for Granny to come and do that alone was probably quite testing and I think he is her rock, really, and she is his.’ 

The Queen and the Duke shared an irreplaceable bond – united at key moments of history, witnessed from the unique viewpoint of a monarch and her consort.

While private secretaries and household staff have come and gone, Philip remained a constant in the Queen’s life.

They travelled the globe together, endured state visit after state visit, and thousands of engagements over the years – all made more bearable with one another’s company and through the knowledge they were in it as a duo – albeit one wearing the crown.

They also witnessed the changing world from a shared standpoint, with just five years difference in age between them.

They married in the 1940s and saw together the rapid advances in modern life from man walking on the moon for the first time to the invention of the internet.

Now as duty dictates, the Queen will continue her role as Sovereign alone, without the lifelong companion upon whom she greatly depended. 

The Queen has been gradually reducing the number of public engagements she attends from 332 in 2016 to a still impressive 283 in 2018.

Her son Prince Charles, meanwhile, undertook 507, and he met Prince Philip at Sandringham in November 2019 to discuss the fallout from Andrew’s BBC interview.

Charles’s key role in ‘retiring’ Prince Andrew from public life has fed speculation he is preparing to adopt a modern ‘Prince Regent’ role.

This would see him control day-to-day royal affairs while his mother remains monarch.

Her Majesty will turn 95 in April 2021 – the same age at which her husband Philip withdrew from his public duties.

And there is talk among courtiers that she may use the milestone to effectively hand over day-to-day control of the monarchy to Charles.

Many courtiers feel that since Philip, who used to rule his family with an iron fist, retired from public life, ‘discipline’ within the royal family has not been what it should be.

This has been linked to Andrew’s virtually autonomous decision to go ahead with his disastrous Newsnight interview about Epstein. 

Royal biographer Christopher Wilson described him as ‘the guiding hand, the disciplinarian’ and said that since his retirement there was no central command at Buckingham Palace, telling the Daily Telegraph: ‘You can see the disintegration.’

Following this the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their departure from royal duties at the start of 2020, as they moved to North America for a new life.

The couple, who had their first son Archie in May 2019, decided to step down following a series of controversies including their support for environmental issues despite regularly flying on private jets.

‘Megxit’ was then made permanent in February 2021, after Buckingham Palace confirmed Harry and Meghan – who are now expecting a second child, a girl – would not be returning as senior royals. 

But weeks later the the monarchy was plunged into crisis while Philip was in hospital following the shocking allegations of racism made by the Sussexes in their interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

Harry and Meghan, who faced calls to postpone the interview because Philip was unwell, accused an unnamed royal of raising concerns about how dark Archie’s skin tone would be before he was born.

In March this year, Philip was reunited with the Queen after leaving hospital following a period of 28 days receiving treatment at both King Edward VII’s Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London 

He was initially receiving care for an infection then underwent heart surgery for a pre-existing condition. Philip was taken to King Edward VII’s by car on February 16 after feeling unwell at Windsor Castle.

Two weeks later was moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London by ambulance where he had a successful procedure on a pre-existing heart condition on March 3. 

A few days later he was transferred back to King Edward’s to recuperate and to continue his treatment – before being taken back to Windsor Castle on March 16 after a month away from his wife.

From scolding a runner at Balmoral, poking fun at a student’s beard to a flirty remark to a young woman: Ordinary Britons fondly remember their own meetings with Prince Philip

Britons today recounted their experiences of meeting Prince Philip as they paid tribute to him after his death was announced. 

The Duke of Edinburgh spent his final days at Windsor Castle with his wife after a 28-night stay in hospital having been admitted in mid-February for an infection and a pre-existing heart condition.

Her Majesty announced her husband’s death at midday as the Union Flag was lowered to half-mast outside Buckingham Palace and on public buildings across the UK and Commonwealth.

Reacting to the momentous news on Twitter, devastated Britons who met the Prince issued glowing tributes. 

One man recounted how he was confronted by Philip whilst he was out for a run on the Balmoral estate but was then cheerfully waved on his way when he told the Duke he was ‘training’ for ‘Rugby Sir’. 

Another recalled how, as an ‘unshaven student’, he met Philip and when he told him he was considering a career in the Royal Navy, he was told by the prince, a former ship commander, that ‘you’re going to have to learn to grow a better beard than that’.   

A woman described how, aged 26, she sat next to Philip at a lunch and told him it was the second time they had met. She said he flirtatiously replied: ‘Nonsense. I’d have remembered YOU.’   

A third spoke of his ‘exemplary’ service in the Second World War and said they were ‘struck by his genuine interest in young people’ when they met him while at university. 

Broadcaster Emma Webb said ‘no words’ could describe her sadness at Philip’s passing as she wrote: ‘When I met him as a nervous child, he made me laugh and I’ve adored him ever since’.  

Announcing Philip’s death earlier today, the Royal Family said in a statement: ‘It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

‘His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss’.

As with all royal births, marriages and deaths, a notice announcing Philip’s passing was displayed outside Buckingham Palace while mourners are already laying flowers at Windsor Castle, where he is expected to be buried in Frogmore Gardens following a small family service at St George’s Chapel. 

Responding online, Twitter user Michaela Hollywood wrote posted a photo of herself talking to Philip and wrote: ‘I was honoured to have met HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the summer of 2016. 

‘He made a wonderful remark about the height of my wheelchair & how much he loved that I was of equal height. 

‘My thoughts are with all who knew, loved and now mourn him. May he Rest in Peace.’ 

Tweeting a photo of rugby player Alun Wyn Jones with the Duke, the Principality Stadium wrote: ‘Our thoughts go out to the family of HRH Prince Philip following the news of his death. 

‘The legacy of his public service is a lasting one, not least through his Duke of Edinburgh programme.’

Alongside a photo of themselves with the Duke, Greg Daly wrote on Twitter: ‘I met Prince Philip once, at an event in Canada House. He was very funny. RIP’. 

Author Molly Johnson said: ‘Well I for one am absolutely gutted about Prince Philip and a family has lost a beloved husband, father, grandfather. 

‘Twitter will be vile sadly, but judge as you find and he was great fun when I met him once & I was proud of that. Very sad. 

Jane Johnson said: ‘When I was 26 I was seated next to Prince Philip at a Greenwich Lit Fest lunch for 50th anniversary of The Hobbit. 

‘I told him it was the 2nd time we’d met: he’d given me with my gold DofE 7 years before. ‘Nonsense,’ he twinkled. ‘I’d have remembered YOU.’ A charmer. RIP’

Charlotte Holloway wrote: ‘So sorry to hear about Prince Philip, I was so struck by his genuine interest in young people and their future when I met him at university. 

‘His wartime service in the Navy was exemplary – what a lifetime of public service worthy of universal respect.’  

A state funeral including a flotilla of boats on the Thames to mark Philip’s life looks impossible due to covid restrictions, but the Duke was said to have disliked the idea because he ‘didn’t want the fuss’. Details will emerge in the next few days.

A frail Philip was last seen leaving hospital on March 16 and his death plunges the nation and the Royal Family into mourning, and brings to an end Philip’s lifetime of service to Britain and to Elizabeth, the Queen who adored him since her teens. 

The couple shared their 73rd wedding anniversary last November and he was due to turn 100 on June 10 this year.

Boris Johnson led the tributes and addressed the nation outside No 10 Downing Street shortly after the announcement. 

He said: ‘We give thanks, as a nation and a kingdom, for the extraordinary life and work of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’.

He added: ‘Speaking on their golden wedding anniversary, Her Majesty said that our country owed her husband ‘a greater debt than he would ever claim or we shall ever know’ and I am sure that estimate is correct So we mourn today with Her Majesty The Queen.

‘We remember the duke for all of this and above all for his steadfast support for Her Majesty the Queen. Not just as her consort, by her side every day of her reign, but as her husband, her ‘strength and stay’, of more than 70 years.

‘And it is to Her Majesty, and her family, that our nation’s thoughts must turn today. Because they have lost not just a much-loved and highly respected public figure, but a devoted husband and a proud and loving father, grandfather and, in recent years, great-grandfather.’ Mr Johnson also praised his Duke of Edinburgh scheme, which has ‘shaped and inspired the lives of countless young people’.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said: ‘As we recover and rebuild after the terrible trial of the coronavirus pandemic, we will need fortitude and a deep sense of commitment to serving others. Throughout his life Prince Philip displayed those qualities in abundance, and I pray that we can take inspiration from his example’.

Her Majesty is now expected to enter an eight-day period of mourning. 

She will not carry out any duties, even in private, while laws will not be given the Royal Assent and affairs of state will also be paused. 

A further period of official Royal Mourning is expected to continue for 30 days.

Officials at Buckingham Palace are now preparing for a royal ceremonial funeral at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in keeping with Philip’s wishes, with a military procession also expected in London – Covid laws permitting. 

Do YOU have recollections of meeting Prince Philip? Send them to danny.hussain@mailonline.co.uk 

 

‘He gladly dedicated himself to the people of the UK’: Joe Biden praises Prince Philip’s ‘decades of public service’ as he leads world leaders and European royalty in paying tribute to the duke after his death aged 99

Joe Biden praised Prince Philip’s ‘decades of devoted public service’ as he led world leaders in paying tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh who died today aged 99.

The US president said Philip ‘gladly dedicated himself to the people of the UK’ while championing charitable causes and environmental issues. 

‘We send our deepest condolences to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the entire Royal Family, and all the people of the United Kingdom on the death of His Royal Highness Prince Philip,’ a White House statement said. 

‘His legacy will live on not only through his family, but in all the charitable endeavours he shaped.’

Leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern, India’s Narenda Modi and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in honouring Prince Philip – a fitting tribute to a man with presence on the world stage. 

Meanwhile Europe’s royals, including the kings of Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands also expressed their condolences, with Dutch King Willem-Alexander calling Philip: ‘A lively personality [who] never ceased to leave an unforgettable impression.’  

Angela Merkel said she is ‘deeply saddened’ to learn of Prince Philip’s death, praising his ‘straightforwardness’, ‘friendship’ and ‘sense of duty’. 

Former US President George W Bush also paid a glowing tribute to a man he said represented his country ‘with dignity’. 

Bush said: ‘Throughout his long and remarkable life, he devoted himself to worthy causes and to others.

‘He represented the United Kingdom with dignity and brought boundless strength and support to the sovereign,’ he said. 

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden praised Philip as ‘a good friend of our family [and] a friendship we have placed great value on.’

‘His contribution to his country is an example for all of us. We extend our condolences to Her Majesty the Queen, the Royal Family and the people of Great Britain,’ he added. 

King Harald of Norway added: ‘Our thoughts are with Queen Elizabeth and the rest of her family. We also send our condolences to the British people.’ 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he sent the Queen a telegram expressing his ‘deep condolences’, wishing her ‘courage and fortitude in the face of a grievous and irreparable loss.’

‘The name of His Royal Highness is associated with many important events in the recent history of your country,’ he said.

‘He rightfully enjoyed respect among the British and international prestige.’

The Russian embassy in London issued a separate statement pointing out that Philip was the ‘great-great-grandson of Russian Emperor Nicholas I’ and saying that he will be ‘mourned by many Russians.’

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his wife Queen Máxima issued a statement honouring the duke’s ‘lively personality’ which they said ‘never ceased to leave an unforgettable impression’.

‘Throughout his long life, he committed himself with dedication to the British people and to his many duties and responsibilities,’ they added.

‘Our deepest and most heartfelt sympathy goes out to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and all the members of the Royal Family.’ 

Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands said on Twitter: ‘On behalf of the government I have sent my condolences to prime minister Boris Johnson on hearing the sad news of the death of His Royal Highness Prince Philip. 

‘Our thoughts and sympathy are with Britain’s Royal Family and the British people at this time of mourning.’ 

A spokesman for King Philippe of Belgium said the monarch had conveyed his condolences to the Queen in a private message and hoped to speak to her in person as soon as it is possible.

A public statement added: ‘Deeply saddened by the passing away of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 

‘We wish to express our deepest condolences to Her Majesty The Queen, the British Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom.’

Queen Margrethe of Denmark, who was Philip’s cousin, also conveyed her ‘personal condolences’ to Queen Elizabeth in a private letter which was not made public, the royal household said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed ‘deep sadness’ over the passing of Britain’s Prince Philip on Friday, saying he will be ‘fondly remembered as a constant in the life of our Queen.’

‘Prince Philip was a man of great purpose and conviction, who was motivated by a sense of duty to others,’ Trudeau said on behalf of this Commonwealth nation, adding that ‘the Duke always sought out the best in people and challenged them to strive for greater heights.’

Ireland’s prime minister Micheal Martin on Friday sent his condolences to Queen Elizabeth, saying he was ‘saddened’ to hear of Prince Philip’s passing.

‘Our thoughts and prayers are with Queen Elizabeth and the people of the United Kingdom at this time,’ he said.

Foreign minister Simon Coveney tweeted: ‘I want to express sincere condolences to all British people on the sad passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 

‘Our thoughts and solidarity are with you on a very sad day for the United Kingdom.’

Sinn Fein Leader Mary Lou McDonald added: ‘Sincere condolences to Queen Elizabeth and family on the death of her husband Prince Phillip. Sympathies to those of a British identity on our island, for whom his death will be felt as a great loss.’

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader and First Minister of Northern Ireland said the loss would be felt across Ireland and the world.

German foreign minister Heiko Mass tweeted a statement which said: ‘We are deeply saddened by the loss of His Royal Highness Prince Philip.

‘Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Royal family, the people of the Commonwealth, and all who loved him dearly.

‘He lived a long life of service to his country.’ 

The President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier added: ‘Prince Philip was popular and highly respected in Germany. I had the pleasure of personally experiencing his astute humour during our meetings in London and Berlin. His commitment to democracy and freedom will be remembered’.

German ambassador to Britain, Andreas Michaelis, said: ‘His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, will be sorely missed. It is a great privilege that he visited Germany on so many occasions and helped us develop a very close partnership between the United Kingdom and Germany. Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen and her family.’

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted: ‘I am saddened to hear of the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip. I would like to extend my sincere sympathy to Her Majesty The Queen, the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom on this very sad day.’  

Michel Barnier, Europe’s chief negotiator during Brexit, said: ‘I am saddened to hear of the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

‘Sincere condolences to Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family. My solidarity to all the people of the United Kingdom today.’

France’s Europe minister, Clement Beaune, tweeted simply that ‘Prince Philip was a grand figure of the century.’ 

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also paid tribute, saying the duke had ’embodied a generation that we will never see again’ and added that Australia ‘joins together in sorrow and thanksgiving for the loss and life of Prince Philip’. 

In a statement issued from Canberra, Mr Morrison said: ‘For nearly 80 years, Prince Philip served his Crown, his country and the Commonwealth. 

‘His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was, in the words of Her Majesty, her ‘strength and stay’.

‘He embodied a generation that we will never see again. 

‘Australians send our love and deepest condolences to her Majesty and all the Royal family. The Commonwealth family joins together in sorrow and thanksgiving for the loss and life of Prince Philip. God bless from all here in Australia. 

Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern also praised Philip’s legacy which will live on through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. 

‘In over fifty years of The Award in New Zealand, thousands of young people have completed life-changing challenges through the programme,’ she said.

‘Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen at this profoundly sad time. On behalf of the New Zealand people and the Government, I would like to express my sincere condolences to Her Majesty and to all the Royal Family,’ she added.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted: ‘Deep condolences to the Royal Family. Irreparable loss for the British people. 

‘Ukraine grieves together with Great Britain. Prince Philip lived a great life to serve his people and to be an example for the future generations.’ 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the duke’s military career and community work in a statement issued from Delhi.

It read: ‘My thoughts are with the British people and the Royal Family on the passing away of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

‘He had a distinguished career in the military and was at the forefront of many community service initiatives. May his soul rest in peace.’ 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his ‘deepest condolences’ the the Royal family.

‘Prince Phillip was the consummate public servant and will be much missed in Israel and across the world,’ he wrote.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin added: ‘My deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy to Queen Elizabeth, the Prince of Wales, the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom on the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 

‘May his memory be a blessing.’

‘My deepest condolences to the people of the United Kingdom and the Royal Family on the death of His Royal Highness Prince Phillip’, said President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe.

‘May his soul rest in eternal peace.’

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya said the Duke of Edinburgh had been a unifying figure, calling him a ‘great man’.

‘His Royal Highness Prince Philip has been a towering symbol of family values and the unity of the British people as well as the entire global community.’

Ivan Korkok, Slovakia’s minister of foreign affairs offered his ‘deepest condolences’ to the Queen and Royal Family. 

Malta’s prime minister, Robert Abela, said he was ‘truly saddened by the loss of Prince Philip, who made Malta his home and returned here so often.

‘Our people will always treasure his memory,’ he added.

Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, president of the Maldives, called Philip ‘a staunch exemplar of public service.’

Meanwhile emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said: ‘My sincere condolences and sympathies to Her Majesty The Queen, the Royal Family and the British people on the loss of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 

The head of UNESCO tweeted her ‘sincere condolences’ to the royal family and the United Kingdom after Philip’s death.

‘His Royal Highness Philip was a pillar of English modern history and a strong advocate of Planet action through the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Award. He will be missed,’ Audrey Azoulay said on Twitter.

The government in Taiwan also issued a statement which read: ‘The government & people of Taiwan extend their deepest condolences on the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the royal family, & the people of Great Britain & the Commonwealth. 

‘May he rest in peace.’

A statement issued by Buckingham Palace at midday announced Philip’s death on behalf of the Queen, who expressed ‘deep sorrow’ at his passing – which happened ‘peacefully’ on Friday morning. 

Philip – an outspoken former navy commander – had devoted much of his life as the queen’s husband to charity work but was also notorious for his many opinionated public remarks which caused humour and offence in often equal measure. 

He had recently spent time in hospital, being admitted on February 16 for treatment on a pre-existing heart condition and then for an infection, before returning home a month later.

Tributes poured in from the United States, Europe and Commonwealth countries including Australia, India and New Zealand.

Condolences were also expressed by leaders in Ireland, where in 2011 the queen and Philip paid the first royal state visit for a century following generations of enmity with Britain. 

 

The extraordinary life of Prince Philip: Born on a kitchen table in Corfu, the prince with Danish, German, Russian and British blood who was carried into exile aged just one and overcame the trauma of an absent father and mother to fight for his country

He escaped war-torn Greece in a cot crafted from a fruit box and went on to save lives as a decorated war hero, but such feats paled in comparison with perhaps his greatest achievement of all – winning over the affections of a young Queen Elizabeth. 

Prince Philip’s family fled Greece when he was a baby, but he did not let his traumatic childhood hinder him as he rose to great heights after being sent to the UK as a virtually orphaned ten-year-old boy.    

His charm, wit and dashing good looks later won over the hearts of a nation and earned him the attention of a young soon-to-be Queen.

As a young war hero, Philip won round Hollywood actresses, British socialites and eventually a 17-year-old Elizabeth Windsor.

Good-looking and blond-haired, the tall, athletic Prince of Greece impressed the young Princess – then known as Lilibet – as he showed off by jumping over the college tennis nets at their first publicised meeting. 

But the war interrupted their romance so they were forced to keep in touch by exchanging weekly love letters.

He would go on to write emotionally-wrought notes, telling the Princess how falling in love with her so ‘completely’ had made his personal troubles and even those of the world ‘seem small and petty’. 

He found it difficult to put his feelings into words, describing in another message after they had spent time together how he felt incapable of ‘showing you the gratitude that I feel’.

And he told the Queen Mother in the year of their wedding how ‘Lilibet was the only thing in this world which is absolutely real to me’. 

The Greek prince’s early life was marked by upheaval – so his words were filled with meaning when he told Princess Elizabeth in 1946 how his love for her made all his past struggle – and the horrors the world had just been through – seem trivial by comparison.

He wrote: ‘To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty.’  

Following the news of the Prince’s death aged 99, MailOnline follows Philip’s remarkable journey from exile to Buckingham Palace. 

Prince Philip was born on June 10, 1921, on the kitchen table at his family home Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu.

He was the fifth child, and only boy, of parents Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg.

His ancestry was a mix of Greece, Denmark, Russia and Prussia on his father’s side, and his maternal grandmother, Princess Victoria of Hesse, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, making him Elizabeth II’s third cousin.  

The family were happily living in the royal household of Philip’s uncle King Constantine I. 

However, Greece was gripped by political instability and just a year and a half later the family were forced to flee after the King was exiled from his own country following a military revolt. 

In the political recriminations that followed, Philip’s father, a Lieutenant-General in the Greek army, was accused of high treason after allegedly disobeying an order and abandoning his post with his cavalry regiment in the face of attack during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922.

The family managed to escape on British naval vessel HMS Calypso, with the newborn prince carried to safety in a cot famously crafted from an unused fruit box.

With his mother in a psychiatric clinic and his exiled father mostly absent, Philip spent his early years living with various relatives.  

Despite this and a succession of family tragedies, he emerged charming and uncomplaining, though prone to occasional volcanic outbursts.

At 21, he was one of the youngest 1st lieutenants in the Royal Navy and was praised for his role in the Second World War. In July 1943, he devised a clever plan to deflect enemy aircraft, saving the lives of sailors on board the destroyer HMS Wallace.  

They were taken to France where they settled in a leafy suburb in Paris in a house loaned to them by his wealthy aunt, Princess George of Greece and Denmark. 

From then on, the Duke’s childhood was incredibly unsettled as he was without a permanent home.

Years later, when an interviewer for The Independent asked him what language he spoke at home, he answered: ‘What do you mean, ‘at home’?’

He told a separate biographer in 2001: ‘It’s simply what happened. The family broke up. My mother was ill, my sisters were married, my father was in the south of France. I just had to get on with it. You do. One does.’

At the age of eight, Philip was sent to Cheam school in Surrey for three years – but moved to Germany where all four of his sisters had married.

His stint in Germany proved brief when he moved back to Britain and was sent to Gordonstoun, a boarding school in Scotland. 

The school near Elgin, Scotland,  was started by Dr Hahn, who had a profound influence on the Prince.

He very rarely saw his parents and was left isolated, but he was a happy, lively child. He later said of his family’s break-up: ‘I just had to get on with it. You do. One does.’

The Duke thrived at Gordonstoun, captaining the hockey and cricket teams and becoming guardian (head boy) in his last term. It was there he learned to ‘mess about in boats’, laying the solid foundation of a future naval career.

His Uncle Dickie, Lord Mountbatten, one of Britain’s greatest seamen, took a keen interest in the Prince’s progress.

While he was there, Philip experienced another series of tragedies. When he was 16, his sister Cecile, her husband, and their two children were killed in a plane crash. 

Just a few months later, his uncle and guardian, George Mountbatten, the second Marquess of Milford Haven, died suddenly of cancer at the age of 46. Gordonstoun’s German headmaster, Kurt Hahn, was the one to break the news. ‘His sorrow was that of a man,’ his headmaster is said to have recalled. 

After leaving school, Philip joined the Royal Navy, beginning at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in May 1939, and was singled out as best cadet. 

He stayed in the Royal Navy and served on several ships – firstly on HMS Ramillies – and saw active service against German, Italian and Japanese forces. The next year he became a midshipman. 

In March 1941, he was a searchlight control officer on the battleship HMS Valiant and was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the battle of Matapan against the Italian fleet.

His commanding officer said: ‘Thanks to his alertness and appreciation of the situation, we were able to sink in five minutes two eight-inch gun Italian cruisers.’

Shortly afterwards, he was awarded the Greek War Cross of Valour.

When he moved up through the ranks to become First Lieutenant in the destroyer HMS Wallace (at the age of 21), he was the youngest officer in the service to have an executive job in a ship of its size.

But at Christmas 1943, with ‘nowhere particular to go’, as he nonchalantly put it, Philip went with his cousin, David Milford Haven, to stay at Windsor Castle. Princess Elizabeth, now 17, was animated in a way ‘none of us had ever seen before’, wrote her governess, Marion Crawford.  

That weekend of dinner parties, charades, films and dancing to the gramophone proved to be a turning point.

After a subsequent visit to Windsor in July, Philip wrote to the Queen of ‘the simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them. I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.’

Late that summer, the Queen asked him to Balmoral for three weeks to shoot grouse and stalk. It was probably during this holiday that he proposed.

At last, he wrote to the Queen, life seemed to have a purpose. ‘To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty’.

The King agreed in principle to let the couple marry but wanted them to wait until Elizabeth was 21.

To begin with, the King and Queen had misgivings about the match. According to Harold Nicolson, they felt he was ‘rough, ill-mannered, uneducated and would probably not be faithful’. 

But the more they got to know him, the more they liked him, especially George VI, who appreciated his forthright manner, joshing humour and love of the outdoors. 

By the time Prince Philip married, at the age of 26, he had lost virtually all the landmarks that tie the rest of us to childhood and give us identity. 

His father died in Monte Carlo in 1944 after amassing gambling debts and he’d lost his birthright, his home, name, nationality and church. Even his birthday – fixed first in the Julian calendar and then the Gregorian – was no longer the same.

Following the end of the Second World War, Philip ended his active naval career in July 1951 and then started to focus on his work in supporting the Queen following her accession to the throne in 1952.

He also became possibly best known for founding the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme four years later in 1956, a youth achievement award which now operates in more than 140 countries.

The award, which was founded alongside German educationalist Kurt Hahn and Mount Everest climber Lord Hunt, is aimed at helping young people aged between 14 and 24 experience adventure and learn outside the classroom.

The Duke also spent much of his life involved in charities and organisations working within environmental conservation, sport, the military and engineering – with a particular interest in scientific and technological research.

In 1959 he first chaired the judging panel for The Prince Philip Designers Prize, with winners including Sir James Dyson, Lord Foster and Brompton folding bicycle inventor Andrew Ritchie.

He also retained strong connections to the Armed Forces, and in 1952 was appointed Admiral of the Sea Cadet Corps, Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Cadet Force and Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Air Training Corps.

The next year he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet and appointed Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force. The Duke was also Colonel-in-Chief, or Colonel, of various British and overseas regiments.

Philip played a prominent part in various aspects of British life through his role as consort or companion to the Sovereign, accompanying the Queen on most of her Commonwealth tours and State Visits overseas as well as trips around the UK.

He has also travelled abroad a great deal on his own account and has taken great pride in the four children he has had with the Queen. 

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales was born in 1948 and Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, was born two years later. 

After Philip’s wife became Queen Elizabeth II, the couple had two further children: Prince Andrew, Duke of York, born in 1960 and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, born in 1964.

Among the royal tours which had the biggest impact on him was a trip to Antarctica and the South Atlantic in 1956-57, since which he tried to raise public awareness of the environmental impacts of humanity. 

In May 2017 it was announced that the Duke of Edinburgh had decided to no longer carry out public engagements, but he remained patron, president of a member of more than 750 associations up to his death.

The Duke enjoyed good health well into his later years, although as his age advanced beyond 90, concerns for his well-being have increased after he faced a number of scares.

Abdominal surgery, bladder infections, a blocked coronary artery and a hip replacement saw him admitted to hospital on a number of occasions.

Despite having to spend two months convalescing following an operation on his abdomen, the duke appeared sprightly and walked unaided on an official visit to a care home in October 2013 when, at 92, he was older than many of the residents.

A car crash while driving at the age of 97 left him shocked and shaken but miraculously uninjured. He surrendered his driving licence three weeks later.

In January this year, the Duke and the Queen were given a coronavirus vaccine at Windsor Castle by a household doctor.

They spent lockdown sheltering at Windsor and had a quiet Christmas at the Berkshire residence after deciding to forgo the traditional royal family gathering at Sandringham.  

In March this year, he was reunited with the Queen after leaving hospital following a period of 28 days receiving treatment at both King Edward VII’s Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London 

He was initially receiving care for an infection then underwent heart surgery for a pre-existing condition. Philip was taken to King Edward VII’s by car on February 16 after feeling unwell at Windsor Castle.

Two weeks later was moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London by ambulance where he had a successful procedure on a pre-existing heart condition on March 3. 

A few days later he was transferred back to King Edward’s to recuperate and to continue his treatment – before being taken back to Windsor Castle on March 16 after a month away from his wife.

Additional reporting: Katie French 

The tragic women who shaped Prince Philip: A mother who fled revolution and became a nun, a Nazi sister who named her son after Hitler and a plane crash that ‘profoundly shocked’ the schoolboy prince

By Stephanie Linning for MailOnline 

The story of the Duke of Edinburgh’s family is as fascinating as it is tragic. 

Born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, Philip – who passed away peacefully at Windsor Castle this morning aged 99 – was the fifth child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and his wife, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who welcomed her son on the dining table of a villa in Corfu. 

Shortly after Prince Philip’s arrival, the royal family were exiled and, aged just 18 months, the future Duke of Edinburgh was bundled into a makeshift cot – an orange crate – as the family escaped on a British warship. 

Owing to his age, and status as the only son, Philip grew up apart from his sisters, three of whom – Margarita, Cecilie and Sophie – married German aristocrats who became members of the Nazi party. 

Indeed his youngest sister Sophie and her husband Prince Christoph of Hesse were so well regarded they joined Hitler for private lunches and even named their first son in his honour.

When Prince Philip’s third sister Princess Cecile, then eight months pregnant with her fourth child, was killed in a plane crash in 1937 alongside her family, relatives donned distinctive Nazi uniforms for the funeral. 

Philip broke a 60-year public silence about his family’s Nazi ties in 2006, saying that, like many Germans, they found Hitler’s early attempts to restore Germany’s power and prestige ‘attractive’ but stressed he was never ‘conscious of anybody in the family actually expressing anti-Semitic views’.

Philip’s opposition to the Nazis has never been in doubt. He fought valiantly for Britain during the war, seeing action in the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Cape Matapan in Greece and the Allied invasion of Sicily.

However there were questions about his German blood when he and the Queen first met and, unsurprisingly, none of Prince Philip’s sisters were invited to the Queen’s wedding in 1947. 

The German connection was still too shaming, only two years after the end of the war.

The siblings’ mother Princess Alice was largely absent from Prince Philip’s childhood.

She survived revolution and exile, mental breakdown and religious mania, evincing great personal courage to protect a Jewish family during the war – before turning her back on the trappings of royal life to become a nun.

Alice was a loving mother but enforced separation from her young son helped to forge Prince Philip’s self-reliant, sometimes cussedly independent spirit.

Here, a closer look at the women who shaped Prince Philip’s early life…  

His mother, Princess Alice: Queen Victoria’s Greek great-granddaughter born at Windsor Castle who survived revolution, exile and an asylum before becoming a nun

The Duke of Edinburgh’s mother was born Princess Alice of Battenberg in 1885 at Windsor Castle, a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and raised as an English princess, although both her parents – Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg – were German.

She was one of four siblings. Her sister Louise became Queen of Sweden and her brother was Louis ‘Dickie’ Mountbatten, later Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s beloved uncle.

Alice was congenitally deaf but she could speak clearly. Photographs show how beautiful she was, with her upswept hair and lace gowns.

Then in 1902, at the Coronation of King Edward VII, she fell head over heels in love with Prince Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece.

With the advent of the Balkan Wars, Prince Andrew was reinstated in the army, and Princess Alice, assisting at operations and setting up field hospitals, work for which King George V – the current Queen’s grandfather – awarded her the Royal Red Cross in 1913.

By 1914 Alice had four daughters. But in Greece, revolution was brewing, and shortly after Prince Philip was born in 1921, the Greek royal family were exiled.

Aged 18 months, the future Duke of Edinburgh was bundled into a makeshift cot – an orange crate – as the family escaped on a British warship.

They arrived in Paris as refugees, living on handouts from relatives. The strain took its toll on Alice, and her impassioned religious beliefs became steadily more eccentric.

By 1930 she was hearing voices and believed she was having physical relationships with Jesus and other religious figures.

She was diagnosed as schizophrenic, and when treatment in a Berlin clinic failed – on the advice of Sigmund Freud her womb was blasted with X-rays to cure her of frustrated sexual desires – she was admitted to a Swiss sanatorium.

On the day she left, the nine-year-old Prince Philip was taken out by his grandmother for a picnic. When he returned, his mother had gone.

She remained a prisoner there for two and a half years.

Although the couple never divorced, Alice was effectively abandoned by her playboy husband Prince Andrew, who went to live on the French Riviera with his mistress. He died in 1944 in Monaco.

Prince Philip was by then homeless, spending boarding school holidays with various relatives, including his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten.

When Alice was eventually released from the sanatorium in 1932, she became a lonely drifter, staying in modest German B&Bs. Mother and son were not to meet again until tragic circumstances forced them together, reuniting in 1937 at the funeral of Philip’s sister Cécilie, who’d died in a plane crash at the age of 26.

Alice wanted Philip, now 16, to live with her in Athens (the Greek monarchy having been restored in 1935). But Philip’s future lay in the Royal Navy. And by 1941, Alice was stranded in Nazi-occupied Greece.

Her brother, Lord Mountbatten, sent food parcels – which she gave to the needy. 

Then, for more than a year, she hid a Jewish family on the top floor of her house, only yards from Gestapo headquarters. When the Gestapo became suspicious, Alice made her deafness an excuse for not answering their questions.

After the war, diamonds from Alice’s tiara were reset so Philip had an engagement ring to present to Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen. 

Alice sold the rest of her jewels to found her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood Of Martha And Mary, in 1949 and built a convent and orphanage in a poor suburb of Athens.

When there was a Greek military coup in 1967, Alice refused to budge from Athens until Prince Philip sent a plane, along with a special request from the Queen, to bring her home.

Princess Alice spent her final years living with her son and daughter-in-law the Queen at Buckingham Palace before her death in December 1969 at the age of 84. 

Her final months were fictionalised in the third series of Netflix’s The Crown, with Jane Lapotaire playing the role. The series wrongly suggested she gave a tell-all interview with the Guardian, covering sensitive topics including her mental health condition. 

Shortly before Alice died in 1969, she wrote to her only son, whose childhood had been so scarred by her absence, ‘Dearest Philip, Be brave, and remember I will never leave you, and you will always find me when you need me most. All my devoted love, your old Mama.’ 

HIS FOUR SISTERS, MARGARITA, THEODORA, CECILIE AND SOPHIE: THREE MARRIED NAZIS AND ONE DIED IN A TRAGIC PLANE CRASH WHILE EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT

Margarita, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1905-1981)

The oldest of Prince Philip’s four sisters was Margarita, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, born in 1905 at the Royal Palace in Athens. 

In 1931 Margarita married Gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a German aristocrat who went on to become a Nazi.

Gottfried was a son of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through her second son, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and his wife, Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Alexander II of Russia. 

During the Second World War, Prince Gottfried fought for the Germans on the Russian front, where he was badly wounded.

But he turned against the Fuhrer, and was among the aristocratic officers implicated in the plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944 – which led to Prince Gottfried’s dismissal from the army. 

In 1950 Gottfried succeeded his father as Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. 

The couple had six children together, five of whom survived into adulthood. 

Princess Margarita remained in contact with her brother and visited the UK shortly after the birth of Princess Anne. She died in 1981. 

Theodora, Margravine of Baden (1906–1969)

Born in 1906 at Tatoi Palace, the summer residence of the Greek royal family, Theodora was the only one of Philip’s four sisters whose husband wasn’t involved in the Nazi party. 

In August 1931 she married her second cousin Berthold, Margrave of Baden. 

They had three children together: Princess Margarita, who later married Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia; Prince Maximillian, who married Archduchess Valerie of Austria; and Prince Ludwig, who married Princess Anna Maria Henrietta Eleonora Gobertina of Auersperg-Breunner. 

Theodora died on 16 October 1969 at Büdingen, Germany, having survived her husband by six years. Her mother, Princess Alice, died five weeks later.

Cecilie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse (1911-1937)

Prince Philip enjoyed a close relationship with his sister Princess Cecilie, who was born in 1911. 

Known to affectionately as ‘Cecile’ godfather was King George V, the current Queen’s grandfather. 

In 1931, she married Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, her first cousin once removed. 

They are both thought to have joined the Nazi party in May 1937.

A few months later in November Cecile, eight months pregnant with her third child, was killed in a plane crash while flying from Germany to London for a wedding. 

Her plane crashed after hitting a factory chimney in fog near Ostend.

Also killed were her mother, her husband, their sons aged six and four, a lady-in-waiting and the best man.

Firemen found the remains of an infant, prematurely delivered when the plane crashed, lying beside Cecile’s body, suggesting the pilot tried to land because she had begun to give birth.

Prince Philip, then 16, was particularly close to Cecile and being called into his headmaster’s study at Gordonstoun to be told of her death was one of the worst moments of his life.

Years later he wrote: ‘I have the very clearest recollection of the profound shock with which I heard the news of the crash and the death of my sister and her family.’

Cecilie was buried with her husband and three of her children, including her stillborn son, in Darmstadt at the Rosenhöhe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family.  

Photos from their funeral shows Prince Philip flanked by grieving relatives, all wearing distinctive Nazi uniforms. 

One is clad in the uniform of the Brownshirts; another wears full SS regalia.  

The street in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, is lined with crowds – many giving the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute.

Cecile and Georg’s surviving daughter Johanna was adopted by Prince Ludwig and Princess Margaret but died two years later from meningitis. 

Princess Sophie of Hanover (1914-2001)   

Although the youngest of four sisters, Sophie was the first to wed, marrying her second cousin-once-removed Prince Christoph of Hesse in 1930, at the age of 16.  

Son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia, Christoph was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria through her eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, wife of Frederick III, German Emperor. 

Prince Christoph was a director in the Third Reich Air Ministry, an SS colonel and the chief of Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering’s secret intelligence service – responsible for spying on anti-Nazis. 

A photo taken in 1935 shows Sophie sitting opposite Hitler at the wedding of Goering and his bride Emmy. In a diary she wrote of a private lunch with Hitler and how she thought he was a ‘charming and seemingly modest man’.

Indeed couple were such devoted Nazis that they named one of their five children Karl Adolf in honour of Hitler. 

Prince Christoph was killed in October 1943 in a plane accident over Italy. Sophie went on to marry Prince George William of Hanover in 1946, and the couple had three children together. 

Princess Sophie remained in contact with her brother and sister-in-law the Queen until her death in 2001 in Munich. She attended the Royal Windsor Horse Show and was godmother to Prince Edward.  

Duty to the country, and the Queen: How war hero Prince Philip was honoured for saving battleship from Nazi bombers during action-packed military career… that he gave up when he married Monarch

By Harry Howard for MailOnline

Prince Philip’s attachment to the Armed Forces predated even his 73-year marriage to his beloved wife the Queen.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who has died at the age of 99, joined the Royal Navy in 1939 – the year the Second World War broke out – when he was still a teenager.

By 1942, he had risen to the rank of First Lieutenant after bravely fighting in the Battle of Crete and the conflict at Cape Matapan.

The consort was even there in Tokyo Bay to witness the historic surrender of Japanese forces in September 1945.

His glittering career saw him amass a chestful of medals which he proudly displayed at numerous functions. 

The awards included decorations for bravery in the 1939-45 war, where he distracted Nazi pilots during a 1943 bombing raid by launching a raft with smoke floats.

He was also Mentioned in Dispatches for his ‘alertness’ in helping to spot enemy ships.

And in 1945, Philip helped to rescue servicemen who had to ditch into the ocean after their Avenger bomber was hit by enemy fire.

But it wasn’t just on water where Philip put his military credentials to good use – he trained to be a pilot with the RAF and by the time he gave up flying in 1997, at the age of 76, he had completed 5,986 hours of time in the sky in 59 different aircraft.

But after the Queen acceded to the throne in 1952, four years after their wedding, Philip had to painfully give up his career in the Navy.

In an interview to mark his 90th birthday a decade ago, he revealed how it was ‘naturally disappointing’ to have to leave the service – but the man of honour added that he accepted his ‘first duty’ was to serve the Queen ‘in the best way I could’.

His glittering Navy career

It was after leaving Gordonstoun school that Philip joined the Royal Navy. His training began at Britannia Royal Naval College, in Dartmouth, in May 1939 – three months before Britain declared war on Nazi Germany.

The athletic and talented prince was singled out as best cadet and, after war did break out, Philip firstly served on the battleship HMS Ramillies in 1940.

The next year, in March 1941, he was serving as a searchlight control officer on the battleship HMS Valiant when he was Mentioned in Dispatches for his part in the Battle of Cape Matapan against Italian forces off the Greek coast.

British and Australian ships under the command of Admiral Cunningham decisively defeated their opponents.

Whilst just four Allied seamen were killed and only four light cruiser ships damaged, the enemy lost more than 2,000 men and five of their ships were sunk.

Philip’s role on board HMS Valiant was to pick out ships in the darkness using the ship’s spotlight.

Writing in the foreword to a 2012 book about the battle, Philip said: ‘I seem to remember that I reported I had a target in sight, and was ordered to ‘open shutter’.

‘The beam lit up a stationary cruiser, but we were so close by then that the beam only lit up half the ship.

‘At this point all hell broke loose, as all our eight 15-inch guns, plus those of the flagship and Barham’s started firing at the stationary cruiser, which disappeared in an explosion and a cloud of smoke.

‘I was then ordered to ‘train left’ and lit up another Italian cruiser, which was given the same treatment.

‘The next morning the battle fleet returned to the scene of the battle, while attempts were made to pick up survivors. This was rudely interrupted by an attack by German bombers.

‘The return to Alexandria was uneventful, and the peace and quiet was much appreciated.’

However, he added playfully: ‘All these events took place 70 years ago, and, as most elderly people have discovered, memories tend to fade’, and that witness accounts needed to be treated as ‘faction’ – a blend of fact and fiction’.

As well as being Mentioned in Dispatches by his commander Admiral Cunningham, Philip was also awarded the Greek War Cross of Valour.

Cunningham said: ‘Thanks to his alertness and appreciation of the situation, we were able to sink in five minutes two eight-inch gun Italian cruisers.’

At the age of just 21, Philip then moved up through Navy ranks to become First Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Wallace.

He was the youngest officer in the service to have an executive job in a ship of its size.

While serving on HMS Wallace, during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, Philip helped to save his ship from a night bomber attack by launching a raft with smoke floats.

These distracted the bombers, allowing the ship to slip away unnoticed.

Philip was then appointed the First Lieutenant of the destroyer HMS Whelp and was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed the surrender agreement with Allied forces.

Speaking in 1995 about his time on the ship, Philip described his experience of watching the Japanese capitulate.

‘Being in Tokyo Bay with the surrender ceremony taking place on a battleship which was what, 200 yards away? You could see what was going on with a pair of binoculars.

‘It was a great relief. And I remember because from there we went on to Hong Kong. And the most extraordinary sensation when we sailed because we realised we didn’t have to darken ship anymore.

‘We didn’t have to close all the scuttles. We didn’t have to turn the lights out. So you suddenly… all these little things built up to suddenly feeling that life was different.

HMS Whelp then took in prisoners of war who had been held in horrendous conditions by the Japanese.

In the same 1995 interview, Philip described how he and his men broke down in tears at the sight of the released prisoners accepting cups of tea.

‘These people were naval people. They were emaciated. And they set down in the mess, they were suddenly in an atmosphere which they recognised, they were back in the mess.

‘And the people, our ship’s company, also recognised that they were fellow sailors. And so we gave them a cup of tea but it was an extraordinary sensation because they just sat there.

‘I mean both sides, our own and them, tears pouring down their cheeks. They just drank their tea. They really couldn’t speak. It was the most extraordinary sensation.’

Months before the Japanese surrender, Philip helped to rescue two servicemen while serving on HMS Whelp.

The men – Roy ‘Gus’ Halliday (who went on to become Vice-Admiral Halliday) and Norman Richardson – had had to ditch into the ocean after the bomber was hit.

They had been returning from bombing the Songei Gerong oil refinery in Sumatra when the disaster occurred.

Fortunately for both men, the Whelp was on hand to rescue them from the water. The young Prince introduced himself as Lieutenant Philip and neither Halliday nor Richardson at first realised who he was.

It was only later, when the men went to Philip’s cabin and saw a photo of Princess Elizabeth that they made the connection.

In 2006, Philip met with Richardson at Buckingham Palace, where Philip joked, ‘It’s you again! Well, at least you’re dry this time.’

Speaking of the rescue, Philip recalled: ‘The decision to go and pick them up was, I suppose, ultimately made by the captain.

‘It was then up to the First Lieutenant to organise whatever needed to be done. ‘It was routine. If you found somebody in the sea you go and pick them up. End of story, so to speak.’

In 1947, two years after the end of the war, Philip married the then Princess Elizabeth.

They moved to Malta in 1949 and lived there for two years – a period which they saw as among the happiest of their lives.

While in Malta, Philip was First Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Chequers, while Princess Elizabeth was a happy naval wife and mother – first to Charles in 1949 and then Anne in 1950.

In 1950, Philip was given control of the frigate HMS Magpie after being promoted to Lieutenant-Commander. He was nicknamed ‘Dukey’ by his men.

Giving up what he loved 

But Philip’s naval career had to come to an end when Princess Elizabeth’s father King George VI died in 1952 and she became Queen.

Speaking in an unusually candid interview in 2011, Philip admitted it was hard to turn his back on a life at sea after being asked by questioner Alan Titchmarsh.

‘Well, I mean, how long is a piece of string? I don’t know how difficult it was, it was naturally disappointing,’ he said.

‘I had just been promoted to commander and the fact was that the most interesting part of my naval career was just starting.

‘But then equally, if I stopped and thought about it, being married to the Queen, it seemed to me my first duty was to serve her in the best way I could.’

Netflix drama The Crown depicted Philip’s frustration at having to stop his military activities.

The show’s creator Peter Morgan claimed the move led to ‘all sorts of tensions’.

‘He was forced to give up his career and become, as it were, her consort. And that led to all sorts of tensions, both within himself and within the marriage…’

He added: ‘I think he was quite reasonably expecting to have a long, successful career and reach the upper echelon of the Royal Navy.

‘But then King George became sick and died at age 56. This thing happens, bang, sooner than anyone would have expected.’

Taking to the skies 

Another period of Philip’s life depicted in The Crown was his training to be a pilot, which began in November 1952.

Likely in search of some of the enjoyment and meaning which he had taken from his Navy service, Philip began training in a De Havilland Chipmunk before moving on to a North American Harvard.

Both aircraft were produced for training would-be pilots.

At a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in May 1953, Philip was awarded his ‘wings’ by Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshall Sir William Dickson.

Three years later, he gained his helicopter wings and in 1959, his private pilot’s licence.

One dramatic, fictional scene in The Crown showed Philip following the 1969 moon landing flying a plane alongside a co-pilot.

Spotting the distant moon, he took the controls and flew straight towards it, much to his companion’s terror.

After eventually levelling off once more, he said, ‘we’ve also lived… just for a minute’.

Philip embraced his new skill as a pilot and flew for 45 years, amassing 5,986 hours in 59 different aircraft.

His final flight was at the age of 76, on August 11, 1997, when he flew from Carlisle to Islay.

The Prince’s desire to fly came despite the death of his sister Cecile in a plane crash when he was just 16.

Cecilie, who was eight months pregnant at the time, died along with her husband and two sons.

Despite the need to give up his military career, as part of his role as the husband of the monarch, Philip did hold honorary titles in all three wings of the military.

In 1952 he was appointed Admiral of the Sea Cadet Corps, Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Cadet Force and Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Air Training Corps.

The next year he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet and was appointed Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

The Duke was also Colonel-in-Chief, or Colonel, of various British and overseas regiments.

Following in their father’s footsteps 

Philip’s sons – Charles, Andrew and Edward – have all followed in their father’s footsteps by spending time in the military.

Prince Edward spent three years in the Royal Marines as a University Cadet before leaving the Armed Forces after graduating.

Prince Andrew served for 22 years in the Royal Navy and saw active service as a helicopter pilot in the 1982 Falklands War.

As for Charles, in March 1971 he joined the Royal Air Force after gaining his private pilot’s licence a year earlier.

He gained his wings just five months later after completing a parachute jump.

Prince Philip was present to watch his son receive his wings at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

Charles then entered the Royal Navy where he served on ships including the destroyer HMS Norfolk and the frigate HMS Minerva.

In June 1994, Prince Charles was at the controls when a Queen’s Flight jet aircraft crashed after overshooting the runway while coming into land at Islay in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides.

Three tyres burst on the £10million ‘Whisper Jet’, which also suffered damage damaging to its nose cone, landing gear and weather radar. Fortunately, no one was injured.

‘His job, first, second and last was never to let her down’: The magical marriage of the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming cheered post-war Britain and lasted 73 years

Good-looking and blond-haired, the tall, athletic Prince of Greece impressed the young Princess – then known as Lilibet – by jumping over the college tennis nets at their first publicised meeting. 

They had been present together on various occasions, including the wedding in 1934 of Philip’s cousin Princess Marina, later Duchess of Kent, to Princess Elizabeth’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent, and at the coronation of George VI in 1937.

But it was at Dartmouth, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the naval college with their two daughters, that Philip, then 18, and the 13-year-old Elizabeth had their first official meeting in July 1939. 

From that time, they maintained a regular correspondence and met on several occasions.

Philip was invited to spend Christmas 1943 with the Royal Family at Windsor and by the end of the war newspapers were speculating about their relationship.

There was, however, some disapproval and suspicion of this foreign Prince in the post-war years. Old-school courtiers were concerned that he was not a traditional English gentleman, even though he had fought for Britain in the Navy.

But Philip and Elizabeth were already in love. It has been suggested that they became unofficially engaged in the summer of 1946 while they were staying at Balmoral, but the official announcement was delayed until after Princess Elizabeth reached the age of 21 and returned from a royal tour of South Africa.

Philip applied for British nationality and in February 1947 became a naturalised British subject, renouncing his Greek royal title.

He adopted a new surname, but decided against Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg – the family name of the Danish royal house from which his father was descended.

Instead he settled on Mountbatten, an Anglicised version of Battenberg, his mother’s family name.

The style of His Royal Highness was authorised shortly before his marriage on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey and he was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, and made a Knight of the Garter.

He was accorded by the Queen the style and title of a Prince of the United Kingdom in February 1957.

The wedding, attended by an array of foreign kings and queens, captured the public imagination in the austere post-war days of November 1947. The newly-weds were called the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming.

After honeymooning at Broadlands, Hampshire, home of Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed at Buckingham Palace until renovation of their new home, nearby Clarence House, was completed in 1949.

Philip’s devotion to his wife was clear. His first ever private secretary Michael Parker, a friend from the Navy, revealed: ‘He told me the first day he offered me my job that his job, first, second and last was never to let her down.’

Their first child, Charles, was born at Buckingham Palace in November 1948. Anne was born at Clarence House in August 1950. Ten years later, Andrew was born at Buckingham Palace in February 1960, as was Edward in March 1964.

Philip resumed his naval career, attending the Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich and in October 1949 was appointed First Lieutenant and second-in-command of HMS Chequers, operating from Malta.

Elizabeth joined him there at several stages between 1949 and 1951 and had an idyllic life on the Mediterranean island, relishing the relative privacy that living abroad offered them.

Promotion to Lieutenant-Commander followed in July 1950 and in September, Philip was given command of the frigate HMS Magpie, which he said were the happiest days of his sailor life.

He was eventually promoted to Commander in June 1952 and to Admiral of the Fleet in January 1953. His other service appointments were Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Because of increasing anxiety about the King’s health, the Duke was expected to take a share of royal engagements.

Princess Elizabeth and Philip made their first major tour together to Canada and the United States in October and November 1951, after which the Duke was made a Privy Counsellor. 

 

 

 

‘His job, first, second and last was never to let her down’: The magical marriage of the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming cheered post-war Britain and lasted 72 years

Good-looking and blond-haired, the tall, athletic Prince of Greece impressed the young Princess – then known as Lilibet – by jumping over the college tennis nets at their first publicised meeting. 

They had been present together on various occasions, including the wedding in 1934 of Philip’s cousin Princess Marina, later Duchess of Kent, to Princess Elizabeth’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent, and at the coronation of George VI in 1937.

But it was at Dartmouth, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the naval college with their two daughters, that Philip, then 18, and the 13-year-old Elizabeth had their first official meeting in July 1939. 

From that time, they maintained a regular correspondence and met on several occasions.

Philip was invited to spend Christmas 1943 with the Royal Family at Windsor and by the end of the war newspapers were speculating about their relationship.

There was, however, some disapproval and suspicion of this foreign Prince in the post-war years. Old-school courtiers were concerned that he was not a traditional English gentleman, even though he had fought for Britain in the Navy.

But Philip and Elizabeth were already in love. It has been suggested that they became unofficially engaged in the summer of 1946 while they were staying at Balmoral, but the official announcement was delayed until after Princess Elizabeth reached the age of 21 and returned from a royal tour of South Africa.

Philip applied for British nationality and in February 1947 became a naturalised British subject, renouncing his Greek royal title.

He adopted a new surname, but decided against Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg – the family name of the Danish royal house from which his father was descended.

Instead he settled on Mountbatten, an Anglicised version of Battenberg, his mother’s family name.

The style of His Royal Highness was authorised shortly before his marriage on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey and he was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, and made a Knight of the Garter.

He was accorded by the Queen the style and title of a Prince of the United Kingdom in February 1957.

The wedding, attended by an array of foreign kings and queens, captured the public imagination in the austere post-war days of November 1947. The newly-weds were called the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming.

After honeymooning at Broadlands, Hampshire, home of Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed at Buckingham Palace until renovation of their new home, nearby Clarence House, was completed in 1949.

Philip’s devotion to his wife was clear. His first ever private secretary Michael Parker, a friend from the Navy, revealed: ‘He told me the first day he offered me my job that his job, first, second and last was never to let her down.’

Their first child, Charles, was born at Buckingham Palace in November 1948. Anne was born at Clarence House in August 1950. Ten years later, Andrew was born at Buckingham Palace in February 1960, as was Edward in March 1964.

Philip resumed his naval career, attending the Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich and in October 1949 was appointed First Lieutenant and second-in-command of HMS Chequers, operating from Malta.

Elizabeth joined him there at several stages between 1949 and 1951 and had an idyllic life on the Mediterranean island, relishing the relative privacy that living abroad offered them.

Promotion to Lieutenant-Commander followed in July 1950 and in September, Philip was given command of the frigate HMS Magpie, which he said were the happiest days of his sailor life.

He was eventually promoted to Commander in June 1952 and to Admiral of the Fleet in January 1953. His other service appointments were Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Because of increasing anxiety about the King’s health, the Duke was expected to take a share of royal engagements.

Princess Elizabeth and Philip made their first major tour together to Canada and the United States in October and November 1951, after which the Duke was made a Privy Counsellor. 

Prince Philip’s funeral ‘is expected to be held next Saturday after eight days of national mourning’: Flags will fly at half-mast but Duke won’t lie in state before ceremony at Windsor – as royals face dilemma over who to invite under 30-person rule

Prince Philip’s funeral is expected to take place next Saturday in a ceremony and lead-up where tradition is eschewed in the same no-nonsense style the Royal was best-known. 

The Duke of Edinburgh’s own masterplan for how his death would be marked insisted that he would not lie in state or have a state funeral.

Instead he will lay in rest at Windsor Castle before a ceremony at St George’s Chapel next Saturday in a ceremony expected to be socially-distanced.

The Duke will be buried in Frogmore Gardens, in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Gun salutes in his honour are also expected as part of the days ahead.

The Queen has entered an eight-day period of mourning following the death of her husband today aged 99 – as arrangements for his funeral, codenamed Operation Forth Bridge, have begun.  

Royal fans have been told not to attend any part of the events that make up the funeral die to Covid restrictions, or lay flowers that could encourage crowds which may spread the virus. 

But the question of who will be allowed to attend the ceremony for the funeral is made more difficult due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

Eight senior royals are said to be within the ‘firm of eight’ chosen to represent the family look certain to be there on the day.

They are William and Kate, Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex, the Prince of Wales and Camilla, The Queen herself and Princess Anne. Between the principals they have five children who may also attend.

But there are a number of other Royals who would be keen to pay their respects including Prince Andrew, Prince Harry, his wife the Duchess of Sussex, The Duchess of York, as well as Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice and their husbands. 

During the eight days of mourning The Queen will not carry out any duties even in private under Covid restrictions, laws will not be given the Royal Assent and affairs of state will also be paused.

Following these eight days, a further period of official Royal Mourning is expected to continue for 30 days. 

Scores of people will be involved in the days ahead, from military guards and the clergy, to staff at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, who will be making sure the household continues to run smoothly during this traumatic time for the Queen. 

The Queen and her children and grandchildren will enter a period of mourning for their patriarch, which could last several weeks.

Official engagements, most of which are presently online, can continue during this time, although most are postponed or cancelled, but it depends on the wishes of the monarch.

In non-pandemic times, social engagements would usually be cancelled, except those for charitable causes.

There are various types of mourning, but Royal – also known as Court – Mourning, includes the royal family, royal households and the Queen’s representatives in the UK and abroad wearing black and also using black-edged writing paper.

Most of Britain’s monarchs are buried in Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, but both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are in a mausoleum in Frogmore Gardens. 

After her husband’s death, Victoria lived largely in isolation at Balmoral until she died on January 22, 1901. Her 40 years of mourning severely damaged the monarchy.

Following the Duke’s death, Union flags will fly at half-mast around Britain, but Philip will not lie in state and there will be no state funeral.

The Lord Chamberlain, the most senior officer of the royal household, will be in charge of arrangements.

The Queen is also expected to broadcast a televised message to the nation at some stage over the next few days, although this is dependent on how she feels.

In normal times, there would be early morning rehearsals over the next week for a gun carriage and procession through the streets of London, and another in Windsor.

The day before his funeral, the coffin would be moved across the road from Chapel Royal to the Queen’s Chapel to allow an easier transfer to the gun carriage.

The funeral itself would be held in Windsor, while a military procession would take place from St James’s Palace, down Marlborough Road and up The Mall.

The gun carriage holding the coffin would then pass around the Queen Victoria Memorial, Buckingham Palace and up Constitution Hill to Wellington Arch.

Members of the military would lead the procession, with the royal family and household walking behind – but the Queen would be expected to go straight to Windsor.

At Wellington Arch, there would be a royal salute before a ceremonial transfer sees with the coffin moved to a Land Rover hearse or car and taken to Windsor.

On arrival in Windsor, there would be a slow procession driven up the Long Walk with drummers, military and members of the royal family following behind.

It would move up the Long Walk, through Cambridge Gate and then onto Park Street, High Street, past the Guildhall and Castle Hill and in through the Henry VIII gate. 

The arrangements are codenamed Forth Bridge, after the Scottish landmark and Unesco World Heritage Site.

The railway bridge, crossing the Forth Estuary in Scotland, which opened in 1890, remains one of the greatest cantilever trussed bridges.

Plans for the aftermath of the duke’s death have been in place for many years, and were updated and reviewed regularly by Buckingham Palace staff in consultation with the Queen and Philip.

Complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, Forth Bridge has been adjusted to take account of the crisis.

The Royal Households have a long history of making detailed plans for royal funerals.

Arrangements for the Queen Mother’s – codenamed Tay Bridge – were 22 years old by the time she died at the age of 101.

London Bridge is the codename for the Queen’s funeral plans.

In 2004, thieves broke into a car which belonged to a palace press officer at a motorway service station and made off with a briefcase which contained the secret plans regarding the Queen .

But the case and its confidential contents were found and returned by a member of the public.

It was once said that Philip, who was known for his acerbic wit, was amused by the fact that many of those involved in the planning of his funeral had themselves died before him.

Not all royal death arrangements have been so meticulously ordered.

Queen Victoria died at the age of 81 in 1901 after a period of ill health, but the Earl Marshal, who was responsible for the funeral, had no plans in place.

The complex arrangements, including transporting Victoria’s body across the Solent from the Isle of Wight and facilitating a two-hour military procession through London involving thousands of people, had to be organised from scratch in 10 days.

In contrast, her son, Edward VII, insisted his own funeral was planned well in advance.

 

BBC newsreader is left close to tears as ITV, Sky and other broadcasters interrupt schedules, play the national anthem and journalists switch to black outfits to break news that Prince Philip has died

A newsreader was left close to tears announcing the death of Prince Philip this afternoon as the BBC, along with rivals ITV and Sky, interrupted their broadcast schedules to break the news.

The National Anthem accompanied the announcement from Buckingham Palace, while journalists across TV networks switched to black outfits as a mark of respect.

At 12.09pm on BBC One, an episode of Paramedics on Scene was abruptly paused as the screen faded to black, before being replaced by silence and a screen reading ‘News Report’.

Presenter Martine Croxall then told viewers: ‘We are interrupting our normal programmes to bring you an important announcement.’

The newsreader appeared to choke up with emotion as she began reading the official statement from the Palace and the scores of tributes that flooded in subsequently.

Eagle-eyed viewers noticed Ms Croxall donned a black cardigan for the announcement, which she had not been wearing on the BBC’s rolling news channel just minutes earlier when she first broke the news.

She also removed a piece of jewellery she was previously wearing around her neck for the BBC One statement.

The corporation’s Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell was also wearing a black suit and tie as he appeared in the studio, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson also in the same colour as he made a statement outside Downing Street. 

The special programme was broadcast across both BBC One and BBC Two, while ITV cut short This Morning and cancelled an episode of Loose Women at 12.30pm.

Channel Four and Channel 5 also halted their planned run of lunchtime programmes to announce the news. 

The BBC said that planned programming had been suspended following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

‘With the sad news that HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, has died, there is now special coverage across all BBC networks to mark his life of extraordinary public service and planned scheduling has been suspended,’ it said in a statement.

Some social media users sympathised with a Ms Croxall, who presented the special programme until Huw Edwards took over at 1pm.

One wrote: ‘The BBC announcement was done very well and I really thought it was touching the way the newsreader was clearly emotional.’

Another added: ‘The bbc news caster is barely holding it together… bless her.’

Meanwhile on ITV, newsreader Mary Nightingale’s voice quivered as she spoke of Prince Philip’s passing. 

She read the start of the Palace statement, telling viewers: ‘It is with deep sorrow that the Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband….’

However, she then paused slightly and clearly became choked up before continuing: ‘His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.’ 

Philip spent his final days at Windsor Castle with his wife after a 28-night stay in hospital having been admitted in mid-February for an infection and a pre-existing heart condition.

Her Majesty announced her husband’s death at midday as the Union Flag was lowered to half-mast outside Buckingham Palace and on public buildings across the UK and Commonwealth.

As with all royal births, marriages and deaths, a notice announcing Philip’s passing was displayed outside the palace while mourners are already laying flowers at Windsor Castle, where he is expected to be buried in Frogmore Gardens.

The Royal Family said in a statement: ‘It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

‘His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss’.

A frail Philip was last seen leaving hospital on March 16 and his death plunges the nation and the Royal Family into mourning, and brings to an end Philip’s lifetime of service to Britain and to Elizabeth, the Queen who adored him since her teens. The couple shared their 73rd wedding anniversary last November and he was due to turn 100 on June 10 this year.

Boris Johnson led the tributes and addressed the nation outside No 10 Downing Street shortly after the announcement. He said: ‘We give thanks, as a nation and a kingdom, for the extraordinary life and work of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’.

‘What dreadful timing!’ Jeremy Corbyn is hit with furious backlash for posting tweet about event celebrating election in Bolivia just 40 minutes after Queen announced death of Prince Philip

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has posted a tribute to Prince Philip hours after he was slammed for the ‘dreadful’ timing of a Tweet and for staying silent on the news of the royal’s passing. 

The politician responded to the news by talking about the ‘heartbreak’ of losing a loved one. 

He wrote: ‘Losing a loved one, as so many families have this past year, is always heartbreaking. My thoughts are with Prince Philip’s family and all who loved him.’

It comes only hours after in a now-deleted Tweet, the MP posted a link to an event inviting people to ‘support the Bolivian people’ less than 40 minutes after the news of his death was announced.   

The Queen announced with ‘deep sorrow’ the death of her husband this morning at the age of 99 at midday today. 

The Royal Family said in a statement: ‘It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.   

Celebrities and public figures have all paid tribute to the Prince, described as the Queen’s ‘strength and guide’ throughout their 73-year marriage and her 69-year reign.

But around half an hour after the news of his death broke, instead of commenting on the Prince’s passing, Mr Corbyn chose to share his support for the Bolivian people.

He posted on his official Twitter page: ‘The people of Bolivia have chosen a path of social change, which puts people and planet before private private. Join me, @BoliviaFriends and Bolivian speakers on April 19th to show our solidarity.’

The post lead viewers to a link to an event to mark six months since the Left’s election win in the country.

But his post was met with a furious backlash online as people slammed him for his poor timing of the Tweet and criticised his silence over the death of the Prince.   

One person said: ‘A man died who did some much for this nation and Jeremy would rather tweet about Bolivia….. speaks volumes.’ 

Another slammed his ‘great timing’, while others told him to ‘read the room Jeremy’ and ‘Put the news on mate’.  

‘Bro said no to Phillip and yes to Bolivia,’ one person on the social media platform said.

Some people defended Mr Corbyn, MP for Islington North, and said it was likely a timed Tweet that was organised prior to its posting and the death of Prince Philip.

‘Whoever managing your socials needs to pull further scheduled tweets boss,’ one person joked. 

The news of the Prince’s death was announced at midday after he passed away this morning.

His death plunges the nation and the Royal Family into mourning, and brings to an end Philip’s lifetime of service to Britain and to Elizabeth, the Queen who adored him since her teens.

Boris Johnson led the tributes and addressed the nation outside No 10 Downing Street shortly after the announcement. He said: ‘We give thanks, as a nation and a kingdom, for the extraordinary life and work of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’.

Among the slew of celebrities paying tribute to the Prince was Piers Morgan who described it as ‘a very sad day for our country,’ while Eamonn Holmes, who had been presenting This Morning when the news broke, simply wrote: ‘HRH Prince Phillip has died #RIP.’

Piers tweeted: ‘RIP Prince Philip, 99. A truly great Briton who dedicated his life to selfless public duty & was an absolute rock of devoted support to Her Majesty, The Queen, as the longest-serving royal consort to any British sovereign. A very sad day for our country. Thank you, Sir.’ 

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, also said: ‘As we recover and rebuild after the terrible trial of the coronavirus pandemic, we will need fortitude and a deep sense of commitment to serving others. Throughout his life Prince Philip displayed those qualities in abundance, and I pray that we can take inspiration from his example’.

Phillip Schofield shared an image of his own experience meeting Phillip, writing on Instagram Stories: ‘Farewell to a remarkable man, terrifying to attempt to interview but great fun to be with.’ 

Her Majesty is now expected to enter an eight-day period of mourning. 

She will not carry out any duties, even in private, while laws will not be given the Royal Assent and affairs of state will also be paused. 

A further period of official Royal Mourning is expected to continue for 30 days.

Mr Corbyn was contacted by Mail Online for comment. 

 

Upsetting the Chinese, Indians and men with goatee beards: The Duke who often said what he shouldn’t (but the public loved him for it)

At times witty and at other times insensitive, Prince Philip became 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 husband, who has died aged 99, was renowned for his risqué, 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 were toe-curling and hilarious in equal measure.

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

Having spent more than 73 years married to the Queen, the tempestuous Duke became 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 Philip, who was 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).

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).

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)

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).

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).

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

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.

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).

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).

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)

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 at 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)

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)

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).  

Kenya’s Treetops Hotel: Where Philip broke the news to Elizabeth that her father had died and their world had changed forever

On February 6, 1952, Elizabeth and Philip were on a tour of Kenya at Sagana Lodge when, after spending the night at the Treetops Hotel, a message was given to Philip that King George VI was dead.

An aide remarked that he looked as if half the world had fallen in on him. He broke the news to the new Queen while they were alone and hours later they were on their way back home.

Elizabeth was not originally destined to become Queen. However, she became heir presumptive after her father, King George VI, ascended to the throne following the abdication of his older brother, King Edward VIII.

Edward had given up the throne to wed American divorcee Wallis Simpson, as marrying a woman who had separated from her husband was deemed incompatible with his role as head of the Church of England.

At Elizabeth’s coronation in Westminster Abbey in June 1953, the Duke duly knelt to pay homage to the Queen before kissing her left cheek.

He swore to be her ‘liege man of life and limb’. He had no constitutional role other than as a Privy Counsellor, he saw no state papers and, although he was a member of the House of Lords, he never spoke in the chamber. 

On the death of the King, Philip’s naval career came to an end and his life changed irrevocably.

He was left disappointed when the Queen declared on her accession that the Royal Family’s surname would be Windsor and not Mountbatten, prompting him to make the well-reported remark: ‘I’m just a bloody amoeba.’

There are claims that his actual protest in fact contained a number of expletives and the assertion that he was only there to provide sperm.

After the coronation, Philip was required to play a major role both nationally and internationally.

He accompanied the Queen on Commonwealth tours and state visits overseas, as well as on public engagements in all parts of the UK.

He also undertook many royal engagements on his own, at home and abroad. Over the years he was involved with hundreds of organisations and was often a hands-on president.

From the outset he took a keen interest in young people through such organisations as the National Playing Fields Association and the Outward Bound Trust.

In this regard, however, he was best known for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which he launched in 1956, inspired by his time at Gordonstoun school.

He took a prominent international role in the conservation of nature. He was the first president of the World Wildlife Fund-UK from 1961 to 1982, and in 1981 became the Fund’s international president.

The Duke took a great interest in scientific and technological research and development. He was patron of the Industrial Society and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1951-3.

He also focused on housing matters and served as president of the National Federation of Housing Associations from 1975 to 1980.

He chaired the Inquiry Into British Housing which in 1991 called for the fundamental reform of housing finance, including the phasing out of mortgage interest tax relief, in a bid to tackle homelessness and bad living conditions.

The Duke was an accomplished sportsman. He played polo regularly until 1971 and then took up four-in-hand carriage driving, representing Britain at several European and world championships. He also loved to shoot game.

He was president of the Federation Equestre Internationale, the Central Council of Physical Recreation, the British Amateur Athletics Board, the Commonwealth Games Federation, and of the MCC twice, in 1949 and 1975.

A qualified pilot, he gained his RAF wings in 1953, helicopter wings in 1956 and private pilot’s licence in 1959.

His love of the sea never waned, competing regularly at Cowes Regatta. He was Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron, patron of a number of clubs and president of the Royal Yachting Association.

The Duke was awarded a number of honorary degrees and fellowships. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1951, was Chancellor of Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities, and a life governor of King’s College, London.

He was given the task by his wife of reorganising her Balmoral and Sandringham estates, which he did with ruthless efficiency.

He set about modernising Buckingham Palace after being told to keep out of the Queen’s official duties when she acceded to the throne.

‘I tried to find useful things to do,’ he said about starting a footman training programme at the Palace.

He was also fundamental in the upkeep of Windsor Castle, from designing gardens to introducing deer, and was followed by the BBC for a behind-the-scenes documentary in 2005 charting his role as ranger of the vast parkland.

Much was written about Philip’s relationships with his former daughters-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah Ferguson.

It was the Duke who wrote to Charles telling him to make up his mind when the Prince, amid a great deal of public interest, was dragging his heels on whether to ask Lady Diana Spencer to marry him.

When the marriage was falling apart, the Duke wrote to the Princess several times.

It was claimed that he had called her a ‘trollop’ and a ‘harlot’ in correspondence, but Buckingham Palace took the rare step of denouncing the allegations as false.

It was revealed that the letters were signed ‘With love from Pa’.

When Diana died suddenly in a car crash in 1997, Philip joined Charles, William, Harry and the Princess’s brother, Earl Spencer, in the solemn procession behind her funeral cortege.

There were said to have been tensions with the Duke of York’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, whose behaviour Philip described once as ‘a bit odd’.

More recently the Prince was said to have ‘quite liked’ Meghan Markle and was ‘dismayed and deeply upset’ over Megxit.

But Royal expert Ingrid Seward said last year that his feelings towards her and his grandson changed, adding he now compares her to Wallis Simpson, who triggered the abdication crisis when she married the then-King Edward VIII in 1937.

The Duke had a loyal staff, despite his legendary displays of temper. Many stayed with him for years, showing great devotion and describing him as the least boring man they had ever met.

American biographer Kitty Kelley admitted having difficulty ‘digging dirt’ on him, such was the support of his friends.

Throughout his life, there were unsubstantiated stories about Philip’s friendships with glamorous women.

His carriage driving partner Lady Penny Romsey, actress Pat Kirkwood, performer Helene Cordet, film star Merle Oberon, Sacha Abercorn, actress Anna Massey and Princess Alexandra were just some of the women about whom there was speculation.

But the claims were never proven and those close to the Duke insisted they were untrue.

Ms Abercorn said they simply shared an interest in Jung’s philosophy.

‘It was a passionate friendship, but the passion was in the ideas. It was certainly not a full relationship. I did not go to bed with him,’ she once said.

The Duke’s former private secretary, Mike Parker, said Philip had been 100 per cent faithful to the Queen, while Lord Charteris, formerly the Queen’s private secretary, said there was no evidence of any kind that he had strayed.

Gyles Brandreth, who examined the Duke and the Queen’s relationship in his book, concluded that the female friends were merely playmates not mistresses.

The Duke globe trotted and fulfilled countless engagements well into his eighties and nineties.

A busy and demanding schedule did take its toll sometimes. While accompanying the Queen on a state visit to South Korea in April 1999, he fell asleep at a banquet.

In 2007, the year he turned 86, he undertook more than 354 engagements with the Queen and on his own at home and abroad, while in 2013 when he turned 92 and took time off after an operation, he still carried out 184 engagements in the UK and overseas.

The Duke enjoyed good health throughout much of his life but in April 2008 he was admitted to hospital with a chest infection that forced him to cancel a number of engagements.

He spent three nights in the private King Edward VII Hospital in central London but went on to make a full recovery.

In his later years Philip’s energy appeared undimmed, although his brusqueness was said to have mellowed with age.

He was fit and active and continued to take part in fast-paced, dangerous carriage driving events competing at international level until the age of 85, but still took part non-competitively in his late eighties.

He would hare round the courses at high speed, determination etched on his face.

His wife would watch from the sidelines, her camera at the ready, proud, excited and sometimes concerned for his safety.

Philip was always happy to joke about his mortality and could occasionally be heard when reference was made to a future project at official engagements to snort with laughter and make a quip about his limited lifespan.

When he turned 80 in 2001, he was applauded for his devoted service to the nation and the Commonwealth.

He reflected at the time: ‘I imagine there are a few fortunate souls who have managed to get through life without any anxieties, but my experience is that life has its ups and downs.’

When he turned 90 in June 2011 he insisted on no fuss, but the monarch bestowed on him a new title – Lord High Admiral, titular head of the Royal Navy.

Towards the end of his life his advancing years were acknowledged by him stepping down as president or patron of more than a dozen organisations ahead of his 90th birthday.

A serious health scare came as the Royal Family were gathering ready to celebrate Christmas in 2011 when the Duke was rushed to hospital by helicopter after suffering chest pains.

He spent four nights in hospital including Christmas Day and was treated for a blocked coronary artery at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, undergoing an invasive procedure of coronary stenting.

In June 2012, the Duke was forced to miss the majority of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations when he fell ill with a bladder infection.

He was in hospital for several days after enduring a wet and windy trip down the Thames during the Jubilee River Pageant.

Two months later in August 2012, he was treated for a bladder infection once again and spent five nights in hospital in Aberdeen and missed the opening of the Paralympic Games.

His absence, particularly during the Jubilee, seemed keenly felt by the Queen as she continued with the official commemorations without him.

Again in June 2013, two days after the service to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, he was hospitalised for an exploratory operation on his abdomen.

In May 2016, he pulled out of the Battle of Jutland anniversary events following medical advice after what his son-in-law, Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, described as a ‘minor ailment’.

But a fortnight later, the 95-year-old Duke joined the Queen throughout her busy official 90th birthday festivities including a service of thanksgiving, Trooping the Colour and a street party on The Mall.

In April 2018 he had a hip replacement operation after missing three appearances in eight days because of problems with the joint. 

He also had trips to King Edward VII Hospital in December 2019 for a ‘pre-existing condition’ after he was taken there by helicopter before being released on Christmas Eve, as well as his month-long stay in February 2021.

On March 16, he was reunited with the Queen after leaving hospital following a period of 28 days receiving treatment at both King Edward VII’s Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London 

He was initially receiving care for an infection then underwent heart surgery for a pre-existing condition. Philip was taken to King Edward VII’s by car on February 16 after feeling unwell at Windsor Castle.

Two weeks later was moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London by ambulance where he had a successful procedure on a pre-existing heart condition on March 3. 

A few days later he was transferred back to King Edward’s to recuperate and to continue his treatment – before being taken back to Windsor Castle on March 16.

Married to the monarch for 73 years, Philip was at the Queen’s side when her father died and and helped her through the deaths of both her mother and sister in the Golden Jubilee year of 2002. 

He was there too when the Queen made history by becoming the nation’s longest reigning monarch – no doubt sharing her matter of fact view that such milestones were simply part of living a long life.

A source of great strength for his wife, he could also be relied on by the public to say something he shouldn’t.

Opinionated, contentious, frank and fun, the Duke was even said to have coined the word ‘dontopedalogy’ – the art of putting one’s foot in it.

Yet he too was a symbol of continuity – albeit a more outspoken one than the Queen – during the monarchy, and the country’s, ups and down

The Queen, in a speech to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in 1997, paid tribute. ‘He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments,’ she said.

‘But he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.’

Mentor, loving grandpa and ‘legend’: Prince Philip’s incredible bond with his grandchildren – supporting Harry and William after their mother’s death and coming out of retirement for Eugenie and Beatrice’s weddings

Described by Prince William as a ‘legend’ and Princess Eugenie as ‘incredible’, the Duke of Edinburgh was a much-loved grandfather to his ten grandchildren.

Looked up to as the patriarch of his family, Prince Philip – who has died aged 99 – became a mentor for younger royals who continued to turn to him over the years.

Among the Duke’s key involvements in Prince William’s life was when he convinced him to walk in the funeral cortege at his mother Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997.

And it is no doubt a source of huge sadness to new mother Princess Eugenie that he is not thought to have been able to meet her newborn son August – his great-grandson – after describing her grandfather as the family’s rock.

The same will be true of Zara and Mike Tindall who on March 21 welcomed their baby son Lucas Philip Tindall – with Philip in honour of both Mr Tindall’s father as well as Zara’s grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh.

He retired from public life in 2017 and has rarely been seen at major events since, but has made exceptions for his beloved granddaughters Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.

When Beatrice wed Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi at a secret ceremony at Windsor Castle in July 2020, nobody would have raised an eyebrow if the Duke had stayed away from the pared-back nuptials given the Covid-19 pandemic.

Therefore it was a crucial show of support for Prince Andrew’s daughter that the only family photo released of the day showed the bride and groom with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. 

It was particularly significant due to scandal surrounding their father Prince Andrew and his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. 

When Princess Eugenie tied the knot at St George’s Chapel in October 2018, there were rumours that her grandfather wouldn’t attend due to bad blood with her mother Sarah Ferguson, but he made a point of being there. 

Speaking in the 2016 ITV documentary Our Queen at Ninety, Princess Eugenie said of Philip: ‘I think Grandpa is incredible. He really is strong and consistent. He’s been there for all these years, and I think he’s the rock, you know, for all of us.’

Also that year, William was asked by actor Matt Smith for any advice on playing Philip in Netflix drama The Crown, and William replied: ‘Just one word – legend!’

Perhaps Philip’s most important involvement in the lives of his grandchildren came in 1997 with Harry and William following Diana’s death in Paris aged 36.

The brothers and their father Prince Charles had been staying with Philip and the Queen at their Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire at the time of the fatal car crash.

Philip helped William, then 15, and Harry, then 12, through their early grief and protected them as they stayed out of the public eye while the world mourned Diana.

A member of staff at the estate in Scotland told how Philip offered the brothers ‘gruff tenderness and outdoor activities like stalking and hiking to tire them out’.

According to author Tina Brown in her 2011 book The Diana Chronicles, Philip was ‘brilliantly effective with his grandsons’ at possibly the toughest time of their lives. 

It was also claimed that William was reluctant to walk in the funeral cortege through London alongside his father Prince Charles and uncle Charles Spencer.

But Philip is said to have believed William would later regret not joining in with the solemn procession, and asked him: ‘If I walk, will you walk with me?’

Philip is known to enjoy spending time with his grandchildren at royal gatherings such as Christmas at Sandringham, Easter in Windsor and summer at Balmoral. 

Philip is also said to have guided William through his first few months at St Andrew’s University – where he initially felt homesick and even considered leaving. 

The Duke of Edinburgh is said to have reassured William when they talked about the situation, and he stayed at the university where he met his future wife Kate in 2011. 

He is also said to have scheduled his hip operation in April 2018 so he could attend Harry’s wedding to Meghan at Windsor Castle the following month. 

The Duke also had a strong bond with his granddaughter Lady Louise Windsor, thanks to a shared love of carriage driving.

In 2017, days after being released from hospital following treatment for an infection, he wasted no time in attending a polo and carriage driving event at Guards Polo Club to watch Lady Louise compete. 

The Duke of Edinburgh, then 96, got behind the wheel to take Her Majesty to meet their son Prince Edward and watch granddaughter Lady Louise Windsor, then 13, show off her carriage driving skills. 

Then in March 2021, the monarchy was plunged into crisis while Philip was in hospital following the shocking allegations of racism made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Harry and Meghan, who faced calls to postpone the interview because Philip was unwell, accused an unnamed royal, not the Queen nor the duke, of raising concerns about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone would be before he was born.

Meghan also told of how she begged for help when she was suicidal, but said the institution gave her no support.

The Queen, 94, said the issues were concerning, but that ‘some recollections may vary’ and the matter was a family one that would be dealt with privately. 

Queen to enter ‘eight-day period of mourning’ for Prince Philip who is expected to be buried at Frogmore Gardens in Windsor Castle grounds

The Queen is expected to enter an eight-day period of mourning following the death of Prince Philip at the age of 99.

The monarch will not carry out any duties even in private under Covid restrictions, laws will not be given the Royal Assent and affairs of state will also be paused.

Following these eight days, a further period of official Royal Mourning is expected to continue for 30 days. 

Officials at Buckingham Palace are now preparing for a royal ceremonial funeral at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in keeping with Philip’s wishes, with a military procession also expected in London – Covid laws permitting. 

A coffin with the Duke of Edinburgh’s body is expected to be moved at some point over the next few days to Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in London.

This is also where Princess Diana lay for several days before her funeral in 1997. The public will not be allowed to view the body.

The Duke of Edinburgh is expected to then be buried in Frogmore Gardens, in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Most of Britain’s monarchs are buried in Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, but both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are in a mausoleum in Frogmore Gardens.

After her husband’s death, Victoria lived largely in isolation at Balmoral until she died on January 22, 1901. Her 40 years of mourning severely damaged the monarchy.

Following the Duke’s death, Union flags will fly at half-mast around Britain, but Philip will not lie in state and there will be no state funeral.

Lord Chamberlain, the most senior officer of the royal household, will be in charge of arrangements.

The Queen is also expected to broadcast a televised message to the nation at some stage over the next few days, although this is dependent on how she feels.

In normal times, there would be early morning rehearsals over the next week for a gun carriage and procession through the streets of London, and another in Windsor.

The day before his funeral, the coffin would be moved across the road from Chapel Royal to the Queen’s Chapel to allow an easier transfer to the gun carriage.

The funeral itself would be held in Windsor, while a military procession would take place from St James’s Palace, down Marlborough Road and up The Mall.

The gun carriage holding the coffin would then pass around the Queen Victoria Memorial, Buckingham Palace and up Constitution Hill to Wellington Arch.

Members of the military would lead the procession, with the royal family and household walking behind – but the Queen would be expected to go straight to Windsor.

At Wellington Arch, there would be a royal salute before a ceremonial transfer sees with the coffin moved to a Land Rover hearse or car and taken to Windsor.

On arrival in Windsor, there would be a slow procession driven up the Long Walk with drummers, military and members of the royal family following behind.

It would move up the Long Walk, through Cambridge Gate and then onto Park Street, High Street, past the Guildhall and Castle Hill and in through the Henry VIII gate. 

‘To have fallen in love unreservedly, makes all one’s troubles seem small and petty’: Prince Philip’s adoring letters to his beloved ‘Lilibet’ over 73 years of marriage to the Queen

In words laden with affection and warmth, Prince Philip told the then Princess Elizabeth how he had fallen in love with her ‘unreservedly’. 

The letter, written in 1946 – a year before their wedding – was among several revealed in Philip Eade’s 2011 book Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who has died aged 99, told the Princess how falling in love with her so ‘completely’ had made his personal troubles and even those of the world ‘seem small and petty’.

He also found it difficult to put his feelings into words, describing in another message after they had spent time together how he felt incapable of ‘showing you the gratitude that I feel’.   

And he told the Queen Mother in the year of her daughter’s wedding to him how ‘Lilibet’ was the ‘only thing in this world which is absolutely real to me’.

Love letters 

Philip served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and saw active service against German, Italian and Japanese forces.

The Greek prince’s early life was also marked by upheaval – he escaped his home country as a baby by being hidden in a makeshift cot made from an orange box. 

So his words were filled with meaning when he told Princess Elizabeth in 1946 how his love for her made all his past struggle – and the horrors the world had just been through – seem trivial by comparison.

He wrote: ‘To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty.’

Three years earlier, Philip had spent Christmas at Windsor Castle.

Princess Elizabeth was said to be animated in a way ‘none of us had ever seen before’, her governess, Marion Crawford, wrote.

Writing to her after seeing her again in July, Philip wrote of the ‘simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them. 

‘I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.’

The same year, he apologised for the ‘monumental cheek’ of turning up to Buckingham Palace uninvited.

‘Yet however contrite I feel, there is always a small voice that keeps saying ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’,’ he wrote.

‘Well did I venture, and I gained a wonderful time.’

And in a letter to the Queen Mother two weeks after his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in November 1947, Philip expressed his vision for their time together.

He said: ‘Lilibet is the only thing in this world which is absolutely real to me and my ambition is to wield the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good… Cherish Lilibet?’

‘I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. Does one cherish one’s sense of humour or one’s musical ear or one’s eyes?

‘I am not sure, but I know that I thank God for them and so, very humbly, I thank God for Lilibet and us’. 

Public speeches 

The pair’s wedding, attended by an array of foreign kings and queens, captured the public imagination in the austere post-war days of November 1947. 

The newly-weds were called the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming.

After honeymooning at Broadlands, Hampshire, home of Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed at Buckingham Palace until renovation of their new home, nearby Clarence House, was completed in 1949.

And in the years since then, both Philip and the Queen have spoken of each other with affection in public. 

In a 1997 toast during the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary, he said: ‘I think the main lesson that we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage’.

‘It may not be quite so important when things are going well, but it is absolutely vital when the going gets difficult. 

‘You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.’ 

She said on the same evening that Philip had been her ‘strength and stay all these years’.

‘I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know,’ she added.

In 2002, at her Golden Jubilee Speech, the monarch said of her consort: ‘The Duke of Edinburgh has made an invaluable contribution to my life over these past fifty years, as he has to so many charities and organisations with which he has been involved.’

And, during her Diamond Jubilee address to Parliament in 2012, the Queen said to her husband: ‘During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure. 

‘Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.’

Private moments  

Philip was there for the Queen when her father, King George VI, died in February 1952.

Only six days before her father’s death, the then Princess and Philip had embarked on their tour of Australia via Kenya.

According to Eade in his book, Philip said of the days following the King’s death that ‘there were plenty of people telling me what not to do’.

He added: ‘I had to try to support the Queen as best I could without getting in the way. 

‘The difficulty was to find things that might be useful.’ 

And according to an anecdote told by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, Philip is said to have told the Queen when recalling their first meeting – in 1934 – that ‘you were so shy.

‘I could not get a word out of you.’ 

Mischievous Philip, is also said to have joked to his wife on the day of her coronation in 1953 – when she was wearing the 17th century St Edward’s Crown -‘where did you get that hat’.

Duty to the country, and the Queen: How war hero Prince Philip was honoured for saving battleship from Nazi bombers during action-packed military career… that he gave up when he married Monarch

Prince Philip’s attachment to the Armed Forces predated even his 73-year marriage to his beloved wife the Queen.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who has died at the age of 99, joined the Royal Navy in 1939 – the year the Second World War broke out – when he was still a teenager.

By 1942, he had risen to the rank of First Lieutenant after bravely fighting in the Battle of Crete and the conflict at Cape Matapan.

The consort was even there in Tokyo Bay to witness the historic surrender of Japanese forces in September 1945.

His glittering career saw him amass a chestful of medals which he proudly displayed at numerous functions. 

The awards included decorations for bravery in the 1939-45 war, where he distracted Nazi pilots during a 1943 bombing raid by launching a raft with smoke floats.

He was also Mentioned in Dispatches for his ‘alertness’ in helping to spot enemy ships.

And in 1945, Philip helped to rescue servicemen who had to ditch into the ocean after their Avenger bomber was hit by enemy fire.

But it wasn’t just on water where Philip put his military credentials to good use – he trained to be a pilot with the RAF and by the time he gave up flying in 1997, at the age of 76, he had completed 5,986 hours of time in the sky in 59 different aircraft.

But after the Queen acceded to the throne in 1952, four years after their wedding, Philip had to painfully give up his career in the Navy.

In an interview to mark his 90th birthday a decade ago, he revealed how it was ‘naturally disappointing’ to have to leave the service – but the man of honour added that he accepted his ‘first duty’ was to serve the Queen ‘in the best way I could’.

His glittering Navy career

It was after leaving Gordonstoun school that Philip joined the Royal Navy. His training began at Britannia Royal Naval College, in Dartmouth, in May 1939 – three months before Britain declared war on Nazi Germany.

The athletic and talented prince was singled out as best cadet and, after war did break out, Philip firstly served on the battleship HMS Ramillies in 1940.

The next year, in March 1941, he was serving as a searchlight control officer on the battleship HMS Valiant when he was Mentioned in Dispatches for his part in the Battle of Cape Matapan against Italian forces off the Greek coast.

British and Australian ships under the command of Admiral Cunningham decisively defeated their opponents.

Whilst just four Allied seamen were killed and only four light cruiser ships damaged, the enemy lost more than 2,000 men and five of their ships were sunk.

Philip’s role on board HMS Valiant was to pick out ships in the darkness using the ship’s spotlight.

Writing in the foreword to a 2012 book about the battle, Philip said: ‘I seem to remember that I reported I had a target in sight, and was ordered to ‘open shutter’.

‘The beam lit up a stationary cruiser, but we were so close by then that the beam only lit up half the ship.

‘At this point all hell broke loose, as all our eight 15-inch guns, plus those of the flagship and Barham’s started firing at the stationary cruiser, which disappeared in an explosion and a cloud of smoke.

‘I was then ordered to ‘train left’ and lit up another Italian cruiser, which was given the same treatment.

‘The next morning the battle fleet returned to the scene of the battle, while attempts were made to pick up survivors. This was rudely interrupted by an attack by German bombers.

‘The return to Alexandria was uneventful, and the peace and quiet was much appreciated.’

However, he added playfully: ‘All these events took place 70 years ago, and, as most elderly people have discovered, memories tend to fade’, and that witness accounts needed to be treated as ‘faction’ – a blend of fact and fiction.’

As well as being Mentioned in Dispatches by his commander Admiral Cunningham, Philip was also awarded the Greek War Cross of Valour.

Cunningham said: ‘Thanks to his alertness and appreciation of the situation, we were able to sink in five minutes two eight-inch gun Italian cruisers.’

At the age of just 21, Philip then moved up through Navy ranks to become First Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Wallace.

He was the youngest officer in the service to have an executive job in a ship of its size.

While serving on HMS Wallace, during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, Philip helped to save his ship from a night bomber attack by launching a raft with smoke floats.

These distracted the bombers, allowing the ship to slip away unnoticed.

Philip was then appointed the First Lieutenant of the destroyer HMS Whelp and was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed the surrender agreement with Allied forces.

Speaking in 1995 about his time on the ship, Philip described his experience of watching the Japanese capitulate.

‘Being in Tokyo Bay with the surrender ceremony taking place on a battleship which was what, 200 yards away? You could see what was going on with a pair of binoculars.

‘It was a great relief. And I remember because from there we went on to Hong Kong. And the most extraordinary sensation when we sailed because we realised we didn’t have to darken ship anymore.

‘We didn’t have to close all the scuttles. We didn’t have to turn the lights out. SO you suddenly… all these little things built up to suddenly feeling that life was different.

HMS Whelp then took in prisoners of war who had been held in horrendous conditions by the Japanese.

In the same 1995 interview, Philip described how he and his men broke down in tears at the sight of the released prisoners accepting cups of tea.

‘These people were naval people. They were emaciated. And they set down in the mess, they were suddenly in an atmosphere which they recognised, they were back in the mess.

‘And the people, our ship’s company, also recognised that they were fellow sailors. And so we gave them a cup of tea but it was an extraordinary sensation because they just sat there.

‘I mean both sides, our own and them, tears pouring down their cheeks. They just drank their tea. They really couldn’t speak. It was the most extraordinary sensation.’

Months before the Japanese surrender, Philip helped to rescue two servicemen while serving on HMS Whelp.

The men – Roy ‘Gus’ Halliday (who went on to become Vice-Admiral Halliday) and Norman Richardson – had had to ditch into the ocean after the bomber was hit.

They had been returning from bombing the Songei Gerong oil refinery in Sumatra when the disaster occurred.

Fortunately for both men, the Whelp was on hand to rescue them from the water. The young Prince introduced himself as Lieutenant Philip and neither Halliday nor Richardson at first realised who he was.

It was only later, when the men went to Philip’s cabin and saw a photo of Princess Elizabeth that they made the connection.

In 2006, Philip met with Richardson at Buckingham Palace, where Philip joked, ‘It’s you again! Well, at least you’re dry this time.’

Speaking of the rescue, Philip recalled: ‘The decision to go and pick them up was, I suppose, ultimately made by the captain.

‘It was then up to the First Lieutenant to organise whatever needed to be done. ‘It was routine. If you found somebody in the sea you go and pick them up. End of story, so to speak.’

In 1947, two years after the end of the war, Philip married the then Princess Elizabeth.

They moved to Malta in 1949 and lived there for two years – a period which they saw as among the happiest of their lives.

While in Malta, Philip was First Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Chequers, while Princess Elizabeth was a happy naval wife and mother – first to Charles in 1949 and then Anne in 1950.

In 1950, Philip was given control of the frigate HMS Magpie after being promoted to Lieutenant-Commander. He was nicknamed ‘Dukey’ by his men.

Giving up what he loved 

But Philip’s naval career had to come to an end when Princess Elizabeth’s father King George VI died in 1952 and she became Queen.

Speaking in an unusually candid interview in 2011, Philip admitted it was hard to turn his back on a life at sea after being asked by questioner Alan Titchmarsh.

‘Well, I mean, how long is a piece of string? I don’t know how difficult it was, it was naturally disappointing,’ he said.

‘I had just been promoted to commander and the fact was that the most interesting part of my naval career was just starting.

‘But then equally, if I stopped and thought about it, being married to the Queen, it seemed to me my first duty was to serve her in the best way I could.’

Netflix drama The Crown depicted Philip’s frustration at having to stop his military activities.

The show’s creator Peter Morgan claimed the move led to ‘all sorts of tensions’.

‘He was forced to give up his career and become, as it were, her consort. And that led to all sorts of tensions, both within himself and within the marriage…’

He added: ‘I think he was quite reasonably expecting to have a long, successful career and reach the upper echelon of the Royal Navy.

‘But then King George became sick and died at age 56. This thing happens, bang, sooner than anyone would have expected.’

Taking to the skies 

Another period of Philip’s life depicted in The Crown was his training to be a pilot, which began in November 1952.

Likely in search of some of the enjoyment and meaning which he had taken from his Navy service, Philip began training in a De Havilland Chipmunk before moving on to a North American Harvard.

Both aircraft were produced for training would-be pilots.

At a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in May 1953, Philip was awarded his ‘wings’ by Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshall Sir William Dickson.

Three years later, he gained his helicopter wings and in 1959, his private pilot’s licence.

One dramatic, fictional scene in The Crown showed Philip following the 1969 moon landing flying a plane alongside a co-pilot.

Spotting the distant moon, he took the controls and flew straight towards it, much to his companion’s terror.

After eventually levelling off once more, he said, ‘we’ve also lived… just for a minute’.

Philip embraced his new skill as a pilot and flew for 45 years, amassing 5,986 hours in 59 different aircraft.

His final flight was at the age of 76, on August 11, 1997, when he flew from Carlisle to Islay.

The Prince’s desire to fly came despite the death of his sister Cecile in a plane crash when he was just 16.

Cecilie, who was eight months pregnant at the time, died along with her husband and two sons.

Despite the need to give up his military career, as part of his role as the husband of the monarch, Philip did hold honorary titles in all three wings of the military.

In 1952 he was appointed Admiral of the Sea Cadet Corps, Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Cadet Force and Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Air Training Corps.

The next year he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet and was appointed Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

The Duke was also Colonel-in-Chief, or Colonel, of various British and overseas regiments.

Following in their father’s footsteps 

Philip’s sons – Charles, Andrew and Edward – have all followed in their father’s footsteps by spending time in the military.

Prince Edward spent three years in the Royal Marines as a University Cadet before leaving the Armed Forces after graduating.

Prince Andrew served for 22 years in the Royal Navy and saw active service as a helicopter pilot in the 1982 Falklands War.

As for Charles, in March 1971 he joined the Royal Air Force after gaining his private pilot’s licence a year earlier.

He gained his wings just five months later after completing a parachute jump.

Prince Philip was present to watch his son receive his wings at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

Charles then entered the Royal Navy where he served on ships including the destroyer HMS Norfolk and the frigate HMS Minerva.

In June 1994, Prince Charles was at the controls when a Queen’s Flight jet aircraft crashed after overshooting the runway while coming into land at Islay in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides.

Three tyres burst on the £10million ‘Whisper Jet’, which also suffered damage damaging to its nose cone, landing gear and weather radar.

Fortunately, no one was injured.