TIME FOR A WELL-EARNED REST!

As Prince Philip bows out of public view we look back on a life marked by gaffes, gags and unstinting loyalty

FOR the past 70 years he’s been a faithful fixture at the queen’s side, a hard-working consort – and possibly one of the most politically incorrect characters ever to come out of the House of Windsor. But the British public – and the rest of the royal-watching world – will have to do without regular appearances from Prince Philip from now on. The Duke of Edinburgh has bowed out of his official duties – and at the ripe old age of 95, who can blame him? As the duke himself pointed out, “I’m past my sell-by date.”

Insiders say you “could have heard a pin drop” when Queen Elizabeth (91) convened a meeting for a major announcement recently. There was speculation that her majesty might be abdicating, or that perhaps something drastic had befallen her husband.

But it was nothing like that. The prince is alive and kicking and the queen still commands the crown – but Philip bids farewell to a life he assumed somewhat reluctantly when he married his princess 70 years ago.

Ever the joker, the duke had a ready quip when Sir Michael Atiyah, a highly respected British mathematician, told him he was sorry to hear he was standing down. “Well, I can’t stand up much longer,” he said.

In honour of his years as the queen’s perpetual partner and deliverer of toe-curling gaffes, we take a look at Philip’s chequered public life.

DOING IT FOR THE KIDS

The prince seems to have a way with babies and small children.

“He was a wonderful parent,” says Lady Georgina Kennard, a childhood friend of both the queen and Prince Philip.

“He played with his children, he read them stories, he took them fishing, he was very involved. I remember we stayed with them when Charles must have been about one. The three of them were so happy together, easy and relaxed.

“Philip has been marvellous with his grandchildren too. He’s just so good with the little ones.”

But in 1994, Charles (now 68) authorised his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, to reveal that he felt “emotionally estranged” from his parents and that he’d always yearned for affection. This apparently hurt his parents deeply. Philip told columnist Gyles Brandreth at the time that he and the queen “did our best”.

In 2002 when then prime minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, went to stay at Balmoral Castle – the royal estate in Scotland – Philip hit it off with the Blairs’ two-year-old son, Leo. When the little boy belted out the whole first verse of the national anthem to Philip, the prince responded by singing Leo the next verse.

And when tragedy struck the family he was there for his grandsons. After Princess Diana died in 1997 her sons Princes William and Harry were reluctant to walk behind the coffin, but Philip thought they’d regret it later and told them, “If you like, I’ll walk with you.” Which he duly did. (Turn over)

Prince Philip has been Queen Elizabeth’s loyal consort for 70 years. It was he who broke the news to his young wife in Kenya in 1952 that her father had died and that she would now be queen.

He and Elizabeth as young parents of the baby Princess Anne and a young Prince Charles. Philip is known to be good with children.

At Diana’s funeral Philip offered to walk with his reluctant grandsons William and Harry, believing they’d later regret not walking in the procession.

A boy asks the Duke of Edinburgh for his autograph before the start of a charity cricket match.

ABOVE and RIGHT: “Charles is a romantic, I’m a pragmatist”, Philip said after reports emerged of differences between father and son.