LONDON: Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband and the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, has passed away at the age of 99 on Friday.
A statement posted on the royal family’s website morning said: “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Born June 10, 1921, on the Greek island of Corfu, he was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Greece’s king, Philip’s uncle, was forced to abdicate when Philip was a baby, and the family fled to Paris, with Philip famously carried to safety in a crib made from an orange box.
At age 7, he moved to England, where he lived at Kensington Palace, now home to Prince William. Philip lived there with his paternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, and later attended Gordonstoun, a boarding school in Scotland.
At 18, Philip joined the Royal Navy and graduated from the Britannia Royal Naval College as a top cadet. He saw active duty from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean, and in 1945 at the end of World War II, he was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered.
Philip’s military career was truly central to his character, unlike perhaps other royals, according to Ashley Jackson, a professor of imperial and military history at King’s College London.
Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace after their wedding on 20 November 1947.
Philip and the Queen enjoy a walk during their honeymoon at Broadlands, Romsey, in Hampshire.
The royal couple takes tea at Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan, during a 1975 state visit.
Philip and Elizabeth stand with Princess Anne and Prince Charles outside Balmoral Castle, September 1952.
Prince Philip in the colors of Windsor Park polo club at Smiths Lawn, Windsor, 1970.
Britain’s Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in his role as Captain-General, Royal Marines, attends a parade to mark the finale of the 1664 Global Challenge at Buckingham Palace on August 2, 2017.
The official site showcased its deep pain via a virtual tombstone for the monarch’s late husband with the year of his birth and death itched in plain white.
