Western Morning News (Saturday)
West joins nation in honouring Duke
Minute’s silence in tribute at start of funeral attended by Devon Navy personnel
PEOPLE across the Westcountry will observe a minute’s silence as the nation bids a poignant farewell to the Duke of Edinburgh whose funeral is being held today.
The service will take place this afternoon at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, with the congregation limited to 30 members of the royal family and dignitaries due to coronavirus restrictions.
His coffin will be carried to the West Steps where it will rest at 3pm for the one minute National Silence prior to the service.
Devon Royal Navy representatives have been called upon to perform a military role at the televised funeral, which will involve a Bearer Party drawn from the Royal Marines, Regiments, Corps and Air Stations with which the Duke had close ties.
The procession following behind his coffin, which will be driven in a Land Rover and flanked by the Bearer Party, will include members of the royal family.
No sermon will be delivered during the ceremonial royal service, in keeping with Prince Philip’s wishes. His love of the sea and long association with the Royal Navy permeates the Order of Service, which has been released by Buckingham Palace ahead of proceedings. The Dean of Windsor, in the Bidding, will pay tribute to his “kindness, humour and humanity”, adding: “We have been inspired by his unwavering loyalty to our Queen, by his service to the Nation and the Commonwealth, by his courage, fortitude and faith.”
PICTURES have been released which show the first time The Queen and Prince Philip met in Devon.
The Ministry of Defence has shared the photos of Her Majesty meeting the Duke of Edinburgh, who died last Friday aged 99, eight years before they married.
The pair first met at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in 1939, when the then Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was tasked to look after Princess Elizabeth after there was an outbreak of mumps which excused them from going to church.
Among the rare photographs are one of the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip playing croquet.
Princess Elizabeth, whose father George VI was King in 1939, was only 13 at the time and was captivated by the 18-year-old during the trip.
These photographs were found in the private family album of the then Captain of the College Capt F Dalrymple-Hamilton. The photo album came into the Britannia Royal Naval College’s possession pre-1980.
It was July 1939 and Elizabeth was unable to take ‘her eyes off him the whole time’ as Philip apparently leapt over tennis nets and generally “showed off” to impress the young princess.
Marion Crawford, Elizabeth’s governess, recalled: “I thought he showed off a good deal.”
The Princess was entranced, but Philip later revealed that he did not quite see the episode in the same light.
“Well, we’d met at Dartmouth, and as far as I was concerned it was a very amusing experience, going on board the yacht and meeting them, and that sort of thing, and that was that,” he told biographer Basil Boothroyd.
The pair were introduced 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 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 during this visit to Dartmouth, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited with their two daughters, that the pair had their first publicised meeting in that summer of 1939.
King George VI’s official biographer, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett 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.
After that first encounter, the pair maintained a regular correspondence and met on several more occasions.
Philip was also invited to spend the Christmas of 1943 with the Royal Family at Windsor.
In an attempt to stop any gossip about their relationship, the Princess switched the photograph of a cleanshaven Philip which she kept in her room, with one of him sporting a large beard.
But by the end of the war newspapers were already speculating about romance.
Elizabeth and Philip began to talk of getting engaged while at Balmoral during the summer of 1946, but any confirmation was delayed until the Princess turned 21 and had returned from a key royal tour of South Africa with her parents.
The Duke revealed: “We used to correspond occasionally. You see it’s difficult to visualise.
“I suppose if I’d just been a casual acquaintance it would all have been frightfully significant. But if you’re related - I mean I knew half the people here, they were all relations - it isn’t so extraordinary to be on kind of family-relationship terms with somebody. You don’t necessarily have to think about marriage.
“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.”
Philip applied for British nationality and in February 1947 became a naturalised British subject, renouncing his Greek royal title and adopting the surname of Mountbatten. Five months later, in July 1947, it was officially announced he was to marry the Princess.
We’d met at Dartmouth, and as far as I was concerned it was a very amusing experience DUKE OF EDINBURGH