His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh is set to begin his return to public engagements on 12th August when he presents medals at the Royal Society Edinburgh. The Duke will also perform his first mainstream engagement at the end of September, over 4 months after being admitted to the London Clinic for ‘exploratory surgery’.
The BBC’s Peter Hunt confirmed late on Saturday that the Duke of Edinburgh will make a public appearance at the Royal Society, Edinburgh where he will hand out medals. He will then join Her Majesty at Balmoral (travelling from Sandringham) for the remainder of their summer holiday in Scotland.
After his holiday at Balmoral with The Queen has ended, Prince Philip will later in September perform a more public engagement. According to a notice on the Royal Website, ‘The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron, the Conservation Volunteers, will visit the Dersingham Bog Natural Nature Reserve, Sandringham’ on 30th September.
The Duke, who turned 92 during his stay in hospital, has been out of action for the past few months due to his admission to the London Clinic on 6th June for what was termed ‘exploratory surgery’. The Duke was kept in for 11 days before being discharged and beginning what the Palace said would be two months’ convalescence at Windsor Castle. He later moved to Sandringham House where he continues his recovery now.
The Duke of Edinburgh is set to join Her Majesty The Queen at Balmoral Castle in mid-August where he will be able to relax with The Queen and other members of the Royal Family until mid-September, when they return from Balmoral to resume public duties.
The Palace have said that both Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh are looking to reduce even more of their duties as they get older – this is perhaps most evident in the recent decision to send The Prince of Wales to Sri Lanka in November for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, which The Queen would normally attend.
It is expected that The Duke of Edinburgh will, at least at first, take on a light series of engagements. Currently, the engagements on the 12th and 30th September are the only ones which has been publicly announced for the Duke in the near future.
In a few years, we’ll probably learn in his authorized biography that he had major surgery, perhaps for cancer. Only one appearance in four months (where I’m sure he’ll be quite trussed up so nothing untoward happens with his innards) is an indicator his condition was much more serious than has been let on.