New exhibition commemorating the life and legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh opens at Windsor Castle

Royal Collection Trust members of staff look at a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh by Ralph Heimans during a preview for Prince Philip: A Celebration at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, commemorating the life and work of the Duke of Edinburgh. Picture date: Thursday June 24, 2021.
Royal Collection Trust members of staff look at a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh by Ralph Heimans during a preview for Prince Philip: A Celebration Credit: PA

A new exhibition commemorating the life and legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh has opened at Windsor Castle.

Prince Philip: A Celebration has been curated by the Royal Collection Trust and marks key events and achievements in the duke's life.

Sally Goodsir, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Royal Collection Trust, tells ITV News the exhibition is a chance for people to get find out "a little bit more" the duke

The exhibition is displayed in St George’s Hall and the Lantern Lobby, which were devastated by the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, and it includes part of a wooden beam salvaged from the debris by the duke, who later oversaw the restoration project.

Highlights include a portrait painted by Ralph Heinmans in 2017, the year of Philip’s retirement, which has gone on display for the first time.

The Chair of Estate, made for the Duke of Edinburgh after Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation, and his coronation robe and coronet. Credit: PA

It shows him standing in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle, at the end of which is the Tapestry Room where his mother Princess Alice was born.

Gifts presented to Philip during state visits, overseas tours and official engagements are also on show and include a First Nations feather headdress presented during a Commonwealth visit to Canada in 1973, a wine cooler in the shape of a giant grasshopper given by President Pompidou of France in 1972, and a chess set from Nelson Mandela in 1996.

The desk he used at Buckingham Palace from 1952 is also on display, along with the robe and coronet worn for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 and the first sculpture he commissioned.

A First Nations feather headdress given to the duke by Jim Shot Both Sides, Head Chief of the Blood Reserve in 1973.

Sally Goodsir, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Royal Collection Trust, said: “It was planned to mark his centenary which would have been the 10 June but we have still carried on with this exhibition and it’s now being held as a tribute to his official duties.”

The Duke, who died on 9 April at Windsor Castle aged 99, was the longest serving British consort.

The desk the duke chose many of the items to be displayed, including the desk he had used at Buckingham Palace since 1952. Credit: ITV News

Ms Goodsir added: “I’m really proud, I think especially with the way that the funeral was conducted where people couldn’t gather in Windsor as they might ordinarily have done, that people can visit the Castle and really find out a little bit more about him, about the man, about that long period supporting the Queen as consort, and I hope people enjoy it.”

The exhibition is on display at Windsor Castle until 20 September.