By Sue-Ann Wayow
PRINCE PHILIP, the longest serving spouse of the British monarchy has died.
He passed away peacefully at his Windsor Castle home on Friday morning at age 99.
The Royal family’s website stated, “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss.”
He was married to Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving British monarch, on November 20, 1947.
Prince Philip was born on June 10, 1921, on the Greek island of Corfu. A cousin to Queen Elizabeth, he was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and Princess Alice of Battenberg.
Greece’s king, Philip’s uncle, was forced to abdicate when Philip was a baby, and the family fled to Paris, with Philip being carried away to safety in a crib made from an orange box.
At age 7, he moved to England, where he lived at Kensington Palace, now home to his grandson Prince William.
At 18, he joined the Royal Navy and graduated from the Britannia Royal Naval College as a top cadet participating actively in several wars.
As Philip Mountbatten, he met Queen Elizabeth in 1934 at a family wedding. The two are both great-great-grandchildren of another long serving Queen Victoria.
Prince Philip always considered his duty to his wife as his top priority and was ever so often right by her side in support.
In a 2011 interview with the British broadcaster ITV, Prince Philip explained why he gave up an active naval career: ”Being married to the queen, it seemed to me, my first duty was to serve her in the best way I could.”
Prince Philip was the father of Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
His grandchildren are Peter and Zara Phillips, Prince William and Prince Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn. He had 10 great-grandchildren.
In 2009, the Prince paid a brief visit to Trinidad and Tobago for a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
