Married for over 70 years, the Queen and her late husband, Prince Philip, have achieved amazing things together. Although, their crowning achievement together is undoubtedly their children, Princes Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
GYLES BRANDRETH: Am I being very brave - or very foolish? dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SIR – What a wonderfully human person the Duke of Edinburgh was.
In the 1960s, when I was a resident in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, the doctor’s mess was ill decorated. A doctor suggested that the only way to get it redecorated was to invite royalty to visit.
We sent a letter inviting the Duke to dine in the doctor s mess. To our astonishment we received a reply saying that he would be delighted to accept the invitation on the next occasion that he was in Edinburgh.
We kept the date secret but word got out during the week of the visit. A host of workmen descended and very rapidly redecorated and transformed the mess.
Prince Philip was a firm but fair father behind palace walls as insiders remember him as a family man ok.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ok.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When he heard the news that George VI had died, the Duke of Edinburgh looked as if half the world had been dropped on him, his close aide once said.
Philip had been expected to take a large share of royal engagements as the King’s health grew worse.
He and Princess Elizabeth had made their first major tour together to Canada and the United States in October and November 1951, after which the duke was made a Privy Counsellor.
Yet on February 6, 1952, both their lives changed irrevocably.
Elizabeth and Philip were on a tour of Kenya when a message was given to the duke that the King was dead.