PRINCE PHILIP FUNERAL: ROYAL FAMILY PREPARE TO LAY DUKE OF EDINBURGH

Sat 17 April 2021:

Britain is set to hold on Saturday the funeral of Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9.

The funeral service, which will take place at 3pm (4pm SA time) at St George’s Chapel, will be proceeded by a ceremonial procession. The entire event will be held within the grounds of Windsor Castle in the UK.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral will be a “Ceremonial Royal Funeral” but not a state funeral as that is generally reserved for monarchs.

His death has left a “huge void” in the “stoic” Queen’s life, her son, Prince Andrew has said.

The funeral will be a “profound” moment for the Queen to say goodbye to “someone to who she was married for 73 years,” Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told the BBC.

“She’s the Queen, she will behave with the extraordinary dignity and extraordinary courage that she always does,” Welby, who will be making a blessing at the funeral service, said.

The funeral, which is to be attended by only 30 family members because of the UK government’s COVID-19 restrictions, will take place at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

Buckingham Palace released the list of those who will be attending the royal funeral alongside the queen, include senior members of the royal family as well as relatives and close friends of the duke, among them Bernhard, Hereditary Prince of Baden, Penny Brabourne, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, and Prince Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse.

The coffin will be covered with his personal standard – a personal flag – and surmounted with his sword, naval cap and a wreath of flowers.

Minute guns will be fired by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery from the East Lawn of Windsor Castle for the duration of the procession, according to the funeral plan announced by the palace.

The Curfew Tower Bell will also toll.

At 3 pm, a national minute of silence will be observed before the funeral service which is to be conducted by the dean of Windsor.

The service will end as the Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin is be lowered into the Royal Vault in the chapel, where he will be laid to rest.

The queen will be seen in public for the first time since her husband died.

Prince Philip was 99 when he died a short while after he left the hospital.

He was married to the queen for the past 73 years.

War hero and modernizer

On the Greek island of Corfu in 1921, Philip was born as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.

At 18 years old, he joined the British Royal Navy as a cadet.

This led him to see active service for Britain during the Second World War with bravery, being engaged everywhere from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.

Two years after the war, in 1947, Prince Philip renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles and gave up his career in the Royal Navy in order to marry then-Princess Elizabeth.

Ahead of the marriage, he took up the surname Mountbatten and became a naturalized British subject.

The marriage was a significant occasion for many reasons, not least that it was the first major – and positive – state occasion after the devastation and brutality of the Second World War.

With the queen, Prince Philip had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

Known publicly for his gruff manner, Prince Philip was nevertheless a loved and respected father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

The queen described him as her “constant strength and stay.”

Prince Philip was also notably a modernizer in the staunchly traditionalist and sometimes stubborn Royal Family institution, and he pushed for innovations where possible, such as taking royal walkabouts and holding informal palace lunches where guests from diverse backgrounds were invited.

He was also known for his advocacy and support for young people, and as such created the UK’s most well-known young persons’ program: the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme.

He occasionally garnered controversy with spontaneous politically incorrect comments, but these were always understood in the context of a man who came of age in a far different era.

Since the 1940s, Prince Philip has been a key feature of British public life and will be remembered for his service to both queen and country.