The Duke of Edinburgh is celebrating his 98th birthday today privately with family. A 41-gun salute will take place later today to mark the occasion.
We last saw The Queen’s husband in good spirits at Lady Gabriella Windsor’s wedding at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle last month.
His Royal Highness retired from public duties in 2017 have decades of service for Queen and country.
Since retiring two years ago, the Duke spends the majority of his time privately at Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate or Windsor Castle where he enjoys reading, painting, welcoming friends, and taking rides on the estate in a carriage.
Prince Philip voluntarily gave up his driving licence earlier this year after a January car crash left two women hospitalised. The Prince escaped the accident unharmed which took place as he was pulling out of the Sandringham Estate on to the A149.
Prince Philip was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark on 10 June 1921 to Prince Andrew and Princess Alice. He was born in the Mon Repos villa in Corfu, Greece as the couple’s only son and youngest child.
Most of his life was spent outside of Greece as the family left the country when Philip was a baby due to his uncle’s forced abdication and his father’s banishment from the country.
He married Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, on 20 November 1947. Philip had abandoned his Greek and Danish titles earlier in the year, and the King named him Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich on the morning of the wedding.
Elizabeth became Queen on 6 February 1952, and Philip was made her consort. They have four children: The Prince of Wales, Princess Royal, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. They also have eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
In two years time, the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate his 100th birthday alongside a solar eclipse which will be visible across most of Britain.