The quiet making of our future queen
The Duchess of Cambridge’s destiny is set, but it was at Prince Philip’s funeral that she showed just how ready she is for the role
Kate arrives for the funeral of Prince Philip
Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty
It is arguably one of the best photographs ever to have been taken of the Duchess of Cambridge.
Capturing not only the sombre mood of the occasion but also the steely determination of a family in mourning, Kate’s sorrowful green eyes stared straight down the lens as she was pictured arriving at Windsor Castle for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral on Saturday.
How a South Pacific island came to worship Prince Philip as their true messiah
There will be few places where the Duke s loss will be felt as keenly as the island of Tanna where they prayed to him every day
18 April 2021 • 6:00am
The people of Tanna have worshipped the Duke since the Sixties
Credit: Richard Shears / Rex Features
The Duke of Edinburgh may have garnered numerous illustrious titles over his decades of service, but to a tribe on the South Pacific island of Tanna he was only ever known – and worshipped – as “The Big Man”.
For most of his public life, Prince Philip has been regarded as a living deity by a tribe living on the tiny volcanic island which is part of the Vanuatu archipelago. According to local legend, the pale-skinned son of a mountain god once ventured far away across the ocean to marry a powerful woman. In the Sixties, when Vanuatu was an Anglo-French colony known as the New Hebrides, it is believed that tribesmen would have set eyes on a
I owe my life to Prince Philip s mother who hid my family in her attic during the war
From what Evy Cohen has learnt, her family wouldn t exist today if it weren t for Princess Alice, the Duke of Edinburgh s mother
The Duke of Edinburgh with his mother, Princess Alice of Greece
Credit: Bettmann
There was one commemoration this week that stood out for its poignancy. Evy Cohen, 65, owes her life to Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who hid her family during the Second World War.
When Greece was under the control of the Nazis, in 1943, Princess Alice, the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, let three of Mrs Cohen’s relatives stay in an apartment in her royal residence in Athens.
The long-held conventional wisdom about Prince Philip and his eldest son emphasised their perceived differences
Just four days after an ailing Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to the King Edward VII’s Hospital in mid-February, the Prince of Wales made a two-hour trip from his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire to see his 99-year-old father.
Under the Government’s coronavirus lockdown rules, such a hospital visit could only occur in “exceptional circumstances” . When Charles emerged a half-hour later, his face was covered with a mandatory surgical mask, but his distress could be seen in his rheumy eyes. He was the only member of the Royal family to visit the hospital during the Duke’s month-long stay. It was the most visible sign of a rapprochement between father and son that had taken hold in recent years.
When you lose your partner, it’s the in-jokes and small talk that you really miss
Who will the Queen turn to now that she doesn t have Prince Philip by her side to share the highs and lows of each day?
18 April 2021 • 5:00am You have so many shared memories that no one else can really understand nor are they remotely interested in understanding
Credit: Chris Jackson/PA
It’s the really trivial stuff you miss after a long marriage. “Guess who I met on the bus, you’ll never guess, go on.” “I must tell you a lovely conversation I overheard in the check out queue at Morrisons.” All the sort of nothing stuff you come home thinking about and want to unload to your loved one before it fades, knowing that tomorrow it will have gone completely as it was so piddling.