The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
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The Queen and Prince Philip have enjoyed many trips to the north-east during their 70 years of marriage.
The pair regularly visit Balmoral Castle, near Ballater, for summer holidays where they relax by going for walks on the Aberdeenshire estate, eating picnics and cooking barbecues. Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh are also frequent guests of honour at the Braemar Highland Gather- ing, a short trip from her grand residence.
The monarch first attended the event as a seven-yearold in 1933 and has attended virtually every year since she was crowned in 1952. This year, around 17,000 visitors congregated at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park, and the Queen and Prince Philip were joined by Prince Charles and Princess Anne. At this year’s event, the president of the Braemar Royal Highland Society, David Geddes, greeted the Queen and stated afterwards: “She said that it was nice weather and a lovely crowd.
“I mentioned to Prince Philip that it was nice he had managed to come along.”
The couple often attend Sunday service at Crathie Kirk whenever they are resident in the north-east and they were joined this summer by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
The Rev Kenneth Mackenzie said: “Always, when the Queen stays, there is a group of soldiers in residence and, on occasion, they do a guard of honour. It looked very impressive.”
It was reported the Queen was staying at Balmoral when she took the phone call informing her that Princess Diana had been killed in a car accident in 1997. The romance between Prince Philip of Greece and Princess Elizabeth sprang out of a summer encounter on the tennis courts in 1939.
The future couple, who are distant cousins, had been at the same gatherings on a number of occasions.
When Philip was 13 and the princess was eight, they both attended the 1934 wedding of Philip’s cousin Princess Marina, later Duchess of Kent, and Elizabeth’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent. They were also both guests at the coronation of George VI in 1937.
But it was at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited with their two daughters, that the pair had their first publicised meeting in July 1939.
King George VI’s official biographer, Sir John WheelerBennett, said the princess fell for Philip at once on that pivotal weekend.
“This was the man with whom Princess Elizabeth had been in love from their first meeting,” he wrote.
Philip, who was just 18, was introduced to 13-year-old Elizabeth at the house of the Captain of the College, later Admiral Sir Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton.
Two of the other cadets due had contracted mumps, so Philip was the only one allowed to meet them.
The duke revealed: “We used to correspond. I suppose one thing led to another. I suppose I began to think about it seriously, oh, let me think now, when I got back in ’46 and went to Balmoral.”