THE LIFE AND EXTRAORDINARY TIMES OF THE DASHING DUKE

371 average number of his official engagements each year

1961 the year he became the first member of the Royal Family to be interviewed on television

22,191 solo engagements since 1952

1985 when he drove a coach and four across Morecambe Bay in Lancashire as the tide was coming in, negotiating treacherous quicksands

2 the number of pygmy hippos the Duke received as a gift from Liberia’s president William Tubman after his state visit to Britain in 1961

£2 book token − his prize for being thehe best cadet at Dartmouth Naval College during his military training

1963 the year he founded a bagpiping competition for the Pakistan Army

72,430 miles he travelled on the Royal Yacht Britannia, including two round-the-world voyages

1953 the year that the Duke had an early version of a mobile telephone, made by Pye Telecommunications of Cambridge, fitted to his car

785 patronages of organisations and charities

£350,000 what his 1954 Aston Martin Lagonda 3.0 litre Drophead Coupe sold for at auction in 2016

251official251 official overseas visits he hhas gone on withith theth Queen

1947 when he renounced his Greek royal title and became a naturalised British subject. He picked Mountbatten as his new surname − an anglicised version of Battenberg, his mother’s family name

219 official engagements he had last year over 110 days

637 solo overseas visits to 143 countries

65 the number of years he has been Royal Consort − making him the longest serving in British history

2,584,345 young people in the UK who have achieved a Duke of Edinburgh award since 1956

1961 the year that he presented the Silver Wink trophy to the winner of the Inter-University Tiddlywinks Championships

15 engagements he is due to attend this month alone

5,986, flying hours in 59 types of aircraft. He gained his RAF wings in 1953, and his final flight was on August 11, 1997, from Carlisle to Islay

12 his ranking in last year’s GQ magazine’s annual Best Dressed Men list − ahead of Prince Harry

14 books written, including Competition Carriage Driving and Birds From Britannia