70 photos from 70 years mark Queen and Philip’s platinum wedding anniversary
The collection of images shows the monarch and Philip through the decades
Seventy photos – one from each of the 70 years of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s marriage – have demonstrated the close bond between the monarch and her consort.
The images, compiled by the Press Association to mark couple’s platinum wedding anniversary next week, chart Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s enduring relationship, which has lasted the longest of any British sovereign.
The photographs include a behind-the-scenes family portrait of the Queen watching Philip push a delighted Prince Charles and Princess Anne together on a swing in the grounds of Balmoral in 1955.
The royals were setting sail for a family holiday to the Western Isles.
Other images from the Press Association archive show the Duke perched on the top of a Land Rover, watching the Badminton Horse Trials with the Queen by the side of the car – both of them wearing sunglasses – in 1968, and the Queen taking a photograph on her own camera during a visit to the South Sea Islands of Tuvalu in 1982.
The photos show him seated nearby as the Queen reads her speech at the State Opening of Parliament in 1958, and following the traditional few steps behind in 1971 as they get off a plane at Heathrow Airport.
An image from 2008 reveals how duty has sometimes taken its toll, with the Duke resting his chin on his hand and closing his eyes as the Queen listens to a lecture at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
In 2003, the Queen is captured grinning as she walks past Philip – in full military dress and bearskin hat – at Windsor Castle, where she was amused by the fact a swarm of bees had colonised chairs set out for VIPs during the ceremonial review.
In 1997, the pair are deep in thought as they view the flowers left in tribute at Buckingham Palace to their former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales, after she was killed in a car crash.
Official engagements range from being photographed with American presidents such as John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie in 1961 and Barack Obama and his wife Michelle in 2009, to standing on the Great Wall of China in 1986 when the Queen became the first British monarch to visit the country.
The Queen and Philip’s milestone anniversary next Monday will be a low-key, private affair at their request, markedly different from the public celebrations of the diamond wedding anniversary in 2007 which included a service of thanksgiving.
Close family and friends are understood to be gathering with the couple at Windsor Castle for a special private dinner on the evening of their anniversary.
