Royal family remembers ‘grandpa’ Philip on his 100th birthday

By Laura Elston, PA Court Reporter

The royal family has paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh on the day he would have turned 100.

Philip, the nation’s longest serving consort, died on April 9, just nine weeks before his milestone centenary.

Princess Eugenie wrote on Instagram: “Thinking of Grandpa on what would have been his 100th birthday.”

The princess shared an image of her grandparents, Philip and the Queen together at her 2018 wedding, as they stood smiling outside St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Clarence House posted a black and white archive photograph of a two-year-old Charles holding his father’s hand as Philip, wearing a dapper double-breasted suit and sunglasses, greeted him after returning home from a trip to Malta in 1951.

The young Charles, who had gone to London Airport to meet his father, led Philip by the hand as they walked away from the Viking Aircraft of the King’s Flight.

The duke had just handed over his command of the frigate, Magpie.

“Remembering The Duke of Edinburgh, on what would have been his 100th birthday,” the post on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s official Instagram account said.

It also included an image of Philip at Windsor in July 2020 after the ceremony to transfer his role as colonel-in-chief of The Rifles to Camilla.

The Earl of Wessex, however, told CNN that his father was “incredibly self-effacing” and probably would not have wanted the hassle of celebrating turning 100.

Edward said: “I don’t think he ever really necessarily wanted to reach his centenary because I just think he thought there would be too much fuss and that wasn’t him, that was just not him at all.”

The Queen poignantly marked the occasion with the planting of a newly-bred rose named after her beloved late husband.

The monarch received the gift from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and watched it placed in the Windsor Castle gardens last week.

She described the Duke of Edinburgh Rose, which is deep pink, dappled with white lines and double-flowered, as “lovely” and the tribute as “very kind”.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also commemorated the anniversary, with their Twitter account posting: “Today we remember His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, on what would have been his 100th birthday.”

The Princess Royal reminisced about her father’s life-long passion for engineering in an interview with ITV News and mentioned the special barbecue kit, transported in a Land Rover trailer, he had built for family holidays at Balmoral.

She said: “The trailer was designed specifically for that role. It was actually made by the engineer at Sandringham but it was designed entirely for that purpose and everything had a place, and you needed to know where that was … and then it worked, really well!”

Anne said the duke’s passion for engineering began during the war years on board Royal Navy ships: “Anybody who goes through Royal Navy training and spends time on a ship, and you have to mend and make do, make things work, and be practical and adjust. It’s not a bad background for looking at things.”

And she reflected on how his background had made him an inquisitive person: “I think your life experience makes a huge impact. He’d seen a lot of it and across a really wide area of both work and industry and in academia so, yes… He probably asked more questions than he gave opinions. He was always good at that.”