Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
UNITED IN GRIEF
» Prince heads home from USA » Charles tribute to ‘dear Papa’
PRINCES William and Harry will walk shoulder to shoulder in their grandfather’s funeral procession.
Harry is expected back from the US within 24 hours and it is hoped he and his brother can heal their rift as they come together after the death of Prince Philip. A royal source said: “There is hope, where the brothers are united in grief, that a corner may be turned.”
On another hugely emotional day, Pr ince Charles paid a warm tribute to his “much-loved’ father, who died on Friday aged 99. Charles said: “My dear Papa was a very special person.”
PRINCE Charles yesterday paid a heartfelt tribute to “my dear Papa” – and said a global outpouring of emotion would have deeply touched the Duke of Edinburgh.
In soft and humbled tones, the Prince of Wales said he, the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family would “miss him enormously”.
He described Prince Philip as a much-loved and appreciated figure and a very special person.
As Charles spoke, it was believed Prince Harry would be flying in from the US in the next 24 hours to be with his family.
He will join his brother Prince William in the funeral cortege at Windsor next Saturday and it is thought Charles will give the eulogy.
Philip died peacefully at Windsor Castle on Friday morning, just two months shy of his 100th birthday.
Charles, speaking from his Gloucestershire home Highgrove, said yesterday: “I particularly wanted to say that my father, for I suppose the last 70 years, has given the most remarkable, devoted service to the Queen, to my family and to the country, but also to the whole of the Commonwealth.
“As you can imagine, my family and I miss my father enormously.
SORROW
“He was a much-loved and appreciated figure and apart from anything else, I can imagine, he would be so deeply touched by the number of other people here and elsewhere around the world and the Commonwealth, who also, I think, share our loss and our sorrow.
“My dear Papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful for all that.
“It will sustain us in this particular loss and at this particularly sad time. Thank you.”
Charles had travelled to Windsor to comfort the Queen in the hours after it was announced to the world that Prince Philip had died.
The Duke of Edinburgh had returned home to Windsor on March 16 after four weeks in hospital.
Charles had visited him at the King Edward VII’s Hospital in London at the end of February and royal sources disclosed they had a “full and frank” discussion to steady the heir for when the time of his father’s passing came.
A source said: “The Duke was doing everything he could to get out of hospital but he summoned his son to have a discussion that was both full and frank, yet heartfelt – and, truth be told, neither of them were sure it would not be their last meeting.”
One insider said Charles would remember his father fondly, despite not always having the easiest of relationships.
The source added:
“The family can look back fondly at his remarkable life and legacy which is everywhere you look. He really is woven into the fabric of so much of Britain.”
While both he and Charles were Royal Navy men, Philip himself recognised that they were different in their outlook on life, once saying: “He’s a romantic and I’m a pragmatist. That means we see things differently.”
Charles had followed in his father’s footsteps by attending Cheam school in Berkshire and then Gordonstoun in Scotland. But whereas Philip flourished
As you can imagine, my family and I miss my father enormously. He was a much loved and appreciated figure and apart from anything else, I can imagine, he would be so deeply touched by the number of other people here and elsewhere around the world and the Commonwealth who also, I think, share our loss and our sorrow.
amid the outdoors-focused regime, Charles hated it and was bullied.
But Charles’ biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, also said he recalled much happiness in his childhood and believed his father had tried his best. In a BBC special on Friday evening, all four
My dear Papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful for all that. It will sustain us in this particular loss and at this particularly sad time. Thank you.
HRH The Prince of Wales, on behalf of the Royal Family
of Philip’s children paid tribute to him as someone who had encouraged and
supported them. Philip “probably wanted to be remembered as an individual in his own right”, said Charles. He added in the documentary: “He didn’t suffer fools gladly. If you said anything that was in any way ambiguous, he would say, ‘Make up your mind!’ Perhaps it made one choose one’s words carefully.”
Princess Anne praised her father as someone who she could always go to with a problem, adding: “He would always listen and try to help.” Prince
Edward and Prince Andrew also spoke fondly of their father. They both visited their mother the Queen at Windsor yesterday.
Edward’s tearful wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, said as they left: “The Queen has been amazing.” The
outpouring of affection for Philip continued as members of the public laid flowers at royal residences.
On its official Twitter feed, the Royal Family put up a tribute paid by the Queen to her husband on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.
It said: “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
The Armed Forces marked Philip’s passing at noon with a Death Gun Salute. Artillery units in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Gibraltar, and some navy warships, also fired their guns – 41 rounds, one minute apart – as the world mourned his loss.