A right royal drama
Prince Philip, who is 95, will no longer carry out public engagements from August.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement last night the Duke of Edinburgh had made the decision with the support of the Queen.
The prince would attend scheduled engagements between now and August but “thereafter, the Duke will not be accepting new invitations for visits and engagements, although he may still choose to attend certain public events from time to time”.
The prince is patron, president or a member of more than 780 organisations. Those roles will continue but he will no longer attend engagements, the statement said. Prince Philip turns 96 in June. Dr Sean Palmer, chair of Monarchy New Zealand, praised the Duke for carrying a “monumental workload”, saying 96 is “a pretty fair age to retire at”.
“He is a decorated WWII veteran who only now is retiring. But his number one job really was to support the Queen and he has clearly always done that well beyond what she would have hoped.”
The Prince’s decision will probably not affect New Zealand, although he is patron of a number of charities here, including the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award.
He is also the senior-most officer in the New Zealand Defence Force.
“We would have to see whether that’s going to continue — I suspect it probably will but he’s unlikely to be on board a New Zealand ship any time in the near future,” Palmer said.
The news that servants from all UK royal residences had been summoned to Buckingham Palace for an emergency meeting sparked a social media frenzy yesterday as people around the world tried to work out if a royal had died.
The move was billed as “highly unusual”, with palace press officers’ refusal to comment leading to suggestions the palace was either following traditional protocol in the aftermath of the Prince’s death or the Queen was abdicating.
Royal watchers around the world tweeted their grief and sent their best wishes to the Queen following her husband’s rumoured demise.
But long-time UK royal correspondent Phil Dampier told Newstalk ZB’s Larry Williams he understood the Prince was not ill but might be planning to retire.
Palmer said the huge interest in Prince Philip showed the royals still had “tremendous value” in New Zealand and around the world.