“My dear papa was a very special person,” he said, adding, that Philip “would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that are being said about him.” He went on, “From that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful for all that—it will sustain us in this particular loss and at this particularly sad time.” Philip died on the 16th anniversary of Charles andDuchess Camilla’s wedding. Wearing a blue suit and a black tie, the eldest son ofQueen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip—who died at the age of 99 on April 9 in Windsor Castle—paid tribute to his father’s remarkable, devoted service to the queen, to my family, and to the country and also to the whole of the Commonwealth." He went on, “As you can imagine my family and I miss my father enormously,” and described him as a “much-loved and appreciated figure.” “Apart from anything else, I can imagine he’d be so deeply touched by the number of other people here and elsewhere around the world in the Commonwealth who also, I think, share our loss and our sorrow,” Charles said. The Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin is currently at rest in the queen’s private chapel at Windsor Castle, and on the day of his funeral—next Saturday—it will be removed to St George’s Chapel in a specially modified Land Rover that Philip himself helped design, followed by a procession of royal family members and long-serving members of Philip’s staff. It’s been confirmed that Prince Harry will make the journey from California to Windsor, but Meghan Markle is heavily pregnant and did not receive clearance from her physician to fly. Currently, Britain is undergoing eight days of national mourning, which will end on the day of the funeral, while the royal family will observe two weeks of mourning. Next up, Prince Philip’s Life in Pictures: Celebrating the Duke of Edinburgh.
