The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Queen and duke mark 71 years of marriage
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are today celebrating a rare achievement: their 71st wedding anniversary.
The monarch was a 21-year-old princess when she married the dashing Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey on November 20 1947.
Their enduring relationship has lasted the longest of any British sovereign, and Philip has been at the Queen’s side throughout the decades, supporting her as she devotes herself to her role as head of state.
While the duke has retired from public duties, the Queen has an official engagement on the morning of their anniversary, when she visits the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London to mark its 150th anniversary.
But the couple are likely to be reunited in private later in the day.
Last year saw the Queen and Philip toast their milestone platinum wedding anniversary with a black-tie party for 100 family and friends in the state apartments at Windsor Castle.
This year’s anniversary is expected to be low key. There is no traditional gift, jewel or colour associated with 71st anniversaries in the UK, although in France it is the ochre anniversary.
With two royal weddings, two royal babies and one on the way, 2018 has already been a year of celebration for the Windsors.
The Queen and the duke’s grandson, the Duke of Sussex, wed American former actress Meghan Markle in May, while their granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, married tequila brand ambassador Jack Brooksbank in October.
Prince Louis – the monarch and Philip’s sixth great-grandchild – was born in April, followed by a seventh great-grandchild, Lena Tindall, in June.
Harry and Meghan’s first child – an eighth great-grandchild for the Queen and Philip – is due in the spring.
It was in 1939 that Princess Elizabeth was said to have first fallen for Philip as a teenager. They had their first publicised and pivotal meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, in July of that year when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited with their two daughters.
Blond-haired, athletic 18-year-old Philip caught Lilibet’s eye as he entertained her by jumping over tennis nets. They were married eight years later.