Items from the Queen and Prince Philip’s wedding to go on display alongside Queen Victoria’s private diaries
Prince Philip, pictured on 22 July 2020 in Windsor
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The Duke of Edinburgh’s life will be celebrated at two special exhibitions at Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse this summer, after what would have been his 100th birthday.
Prince Philip was the nation’s longest serving consort until his death at the age of 99 on 9 April. He would have turned a century old on Thursday 10 June.
The special displays will chart significant events and achievements in the duke’s life through more than 150 objects, the Royal Collection Trust announced, including his wedding to Queen Elizabeth II.
Touching wedding mementoes from the day Philip married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 will be on show at Holyroodhouse, including the wedding invitation, order of service and wedding breakfast menu.
The menu included ‘Filet de Sole Mountbatten’, which was a tribute to Philip’s family name, and ‘Bombe Glacee Princesse Elizabeth’, in honour of the royal bride.
Visitors to the Windsor exhibition, titled ‘Highlights of Prince Philip: A celebration at Windsor’ can view the Coronation Robe and Coronet worn by the duke during the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 and his Chair of Estate, which is usually located in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace.
Philip played a key role in the planning of the Coronation and was instrumental in the decision to broadcast the service live on television. It became the first coronation to be viewed by millions and the first major world event to be broadcast internationally.
Gifts presented to the duke during state visits, overseas tours and official engagements will also be displayed, including a First Nations feather headdress he was given in Canada in 1973 and a wine cooler in the shape of a giant grasshopper presented by President Pompidou of France in 1972.
Many of the objects will focus on Philip’s close associations with Windsor Castle and the local community.
His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born at Windsor in 1885. Visitors will be able to see the journal in which her great-grandmother Queen Victoria recorded the birth, describing the newborn as “very pretty”.
After the Windsor Castle fire of 1992, the duke chaired the Restoration Committee. A portrait of Philip standing in the shell of St George’s Hall and holding a roll of floorplans in the aftermath of the fire, pained by George A. Weymouth, will be exhibited.
The exhibition at Holyroodhouse will include a section charting Philip’s early life and naval career.
His Midshipman’s log book from 1940 will be shown, in which he described his role operating the ship’s searchlight during the Battle of Cape Matapan while stationed on the HMS Valiant off the coast of Greece.
His connections to Scotland and Edinburgh will also be explored in the exhibition, as he was granted the royal dukedom of the Scottish capital city ahead of his wedding.
He took a keen interest in the design of the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was built in the Clydebank shipyard in Scotland, and was also an avid collector of contemporary Scottish art.
Philip acquired a large number of works from the annual exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy between 1958 and 1996, some of which will be on display at the palace.
The exhibition at Windsor Castle will be open to the visitors from 24 June until 20 September 2021, and at the Palace of Holyroodhouse from 23 July until 31 October 2021. Tickets must be pre-booked via the Royal Collection Trust website.
Additional reporting by PA
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