Right royal love story
THE Queen and Prince Philip will mark their 70th wedding anniversary on November 20, after an extraordinary romance lived almost entirely in the public spotlight.
The Queen, 91, and Prince Philip, 96, will celebrate with a quiet dinner for close friends and family at their home, Windsor Castle, eschewing the thanksgiving services, balcony appearances and state banquets that accompanied their 50th and 60th wedding anniversaries.
The pair, who married in 1947, are the only British royal couple to reach their platinum wedding anniversary.
They married when then-Princess Elizabeth Windsor was 21 and then-Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was 26.
Five years later, King George VI died and his daughter Elizabeth became Queen.
She has since served 65 years on the throne, making her the world’s longest-serving living monarch, and Philip, given the title the Duke of Edinburgh the night before the wedding, the longest serving Queen’s consort. The Royal Mint and Royal Mail have produced commemorative stamps and coins to mark the occasion, but there will be no procession down the Mall, or opportunity for the public to acknowledge the milestone.
The Times’ royal reporter, Valentine Low, said the royal couple “don’t want too much fuss’’.
“Philip has already taken a step back from public life,’’ he said.
“And there’s been so many things lately, jubilees, 90th birthdays.’’
Low said the Queen had to be encouraged to perform a public event when she became the longest-serving monarch in February.
“The wedding thing is about them personally and while she will do things relating to [the Commonwealth], she is less likely to do stuff that is for them personally,’’ he said.
The Queen’s former press secretary of more than 10 years, Dickie Arbiter, said the anniversary would be a quiet family affair. “Immediate family, probably a sit-down dinner, very private,’’ he said.
By contrast, the royal wedding 70 years ago was a grand affair set against the backdrop of post-- World War II rationing, and royal courtiers agonised over how the public would react to a lavish royal celebration. After much handwringing, it was decided the heiress to the throne should have a fairytale wedding, and meticulous plans were made.
The Queen’s subjects from across the Commonwealth rallied to help out, shipping butter from New Zealand and rum from Barbados. Australian Girl Guides pooled their pocket money to buy the sugar, spices and dried fruits needed for the four-tiered wedding cake and later received a slice in the mail as a thank you.
The company that made the original cake, McVitie’s, in north London, recreated the exquisite creation for an ITV documentary this month on the wedding, donating the final version — all 226kg of it, standing 2.7m tall — to war veterans at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.
Some of the charities the Queen is involved with are using the platinum wedding anniversary as an opportunity to raise some much-needed money for their projects. Australian tenor and West End musical theatre star Daniel Koek recorded a love song to the royal couple for the charity Cruse Bereavement Care.
Koek, 36, collaborated with British soprano Joanna Forest and Russian composer Olga Thomas to record the Royal Platinum Love
Song, backed by a 72-piece symphony orchestra.
“I think the royal couple celebrating their 70th year of marriage is such an amazing achievement and entirely deserving of being recognised with such a marvellous song,’’ he said.
“I’m obviously privileged and honoured to have recorded the [song] … and I’m so happy to support such a wonderful charity.’’