Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Prince Philip: 99 not out and still doing Royal duty
Duke of Edinburgh stands tall and proud for military handover ceremony at Windsor Castle despite his advanced age.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
It seems you just can’t keep a good man down. Even if he is 99-years-old, officially retired from his duties several years ago and needs to self-isolate during the pandemic.
Prince Philip, consort to Queen Elizabeth II, made a rare public appearance this week, still looking fit and healthy despite being just a year short of his centenary.
The occasion was the handing over of his patronage of The Rifles, a prominent regiment of the British Army, to its new Colonel-in-Chief, Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall.
Prince comes out of retirement for ceremony
A proud military man who had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy during World War Two, this was an engagement Philip would not have wanted to miss and he came out of retirement – which he has done more than once since he officially left public life in 2017 – to be part of the handover ceremony.
He has been patron and Colonel-in-Chief of The Rifles since 1953.
Given the requirements of the pandemic, the ceremony took place at two venues, Windsor Castle and Highgrove House.
Windsor Castle, just outside London, is the royal residence where the 99-year-old prince has been self-isolating with the Queen. Highgrove House, also not far from London, is the family residence of Charles, the Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
Buglers play ‘No More Parades’ to mark handover
At Windsor Castle, the Prince’s arrival was marked by four buglers, who are members of The Rifles’ military band. They played the No More Parades call to mark his final ceremony before he handed it over the Camilla, who was at Highgrove House.
At Highgrove House, The Duchess of Cornwall was greeted by a bugle call, and was welcomed by the Regiment’s Colonel Commandant as The Rifles’ new Colonel-in-Chief.
The contingent from The Rifles present at Windsor Castle also bade Prince Philip “fair winds and following seas”, which is an old naval term for wishing someone good luck.
As a young officer in the navy, Philip was mentioned in dispatches for his quick-thinking and clever actions that helped save his ship, the destroyer HMS Wallace, when it was under heavy attack from German aircraft during the invasion of Sicily in 1943.
The story only came to light decades later when a sailor who served on the ship told the tale to the BBC in 2003.
