WINDSOR, England (Reuters) – Gun salutes will be fired across Britain on Saturday to mark the death of Prince Philip as tributes flooded in for a man who was a pillar of strength for Queen Elizabeth during her 69-year reign.<\/p>\n
Members of the public laid flowers outside royal residences, paying their respects to the 99-year-old prince.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all weeping with you, Ma\u2019am,\u201d read the front page of the Sun tabloid, while its rival the Daily Mail ran a 144-page tribute to Philip, who died on Friday at Windsor Castle.<\/p>\n
Buckingham Palace is expected to announce details of the funeral later on Saturday. It is likely to be a small, private affair, stripped of the grandeur of traditional royal occasions by COVID-19 restrictions and by the prince\u2019s own dislike of people making a fuss.<\/p>\n
The armed forces will mark Philip\u2019s death at noon (1100 GMT) with a Death Gun Salute. Artillery units in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Gibraltar, and some navy warships, will fire their guns.<\/p>\n
Despite a request from the royal family for the public to obey pandemic social distancing rules and avoid visits to its residences, people laid cards and bouquets outside Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace through the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a life! Thank you for serving our country,\u201d read one tribute outside Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n
Related Coverage<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2018BELOVED HUSBAND\u2019<\/p>\n
The death of \u201cher beloved husband\u201d, announced by the queen, robs the 94-year-old monarch of her closest confidante, the one person she could trust and who was free to speak his mind to her. They had been married for 73 years and he would have turned 100 in June.<\/p>\n
Messages of condolence have poured in from world leaders.<\/p>\n
The Duke of Edinburgh, as Philip was officially known, was credited with helping to modernise the institution and supporting his wife as the monarchy faced repeated crises.<\/p>\n
The tenor bell at London\u2019s Westminster Abbey tolled 99 times, a traditional marking of the death of a royal family member.<\/p>\n
Flags at Buckingham Palace and at government buildings across Britain were lowered to half-mast and billboard operators replaced adverts with a photo and tribute to the prince.<\/p> The BBC cancelled programming across all of its television and radio channels through Friday, and aired a special programme with interviews with the queen and Philip\u2019s children, including heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles.<\/p>\n Philip \u201cprobably wanted to be remembered as an individual in his own right\u201d, said Charles, who went to see the queen on Friday afternoon, hours after his father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t suffer fools gladly, so if you said anything that was in any way ambiguous, he would say: \u2018Make up your mind!\u2019 Perhaps it made one choose one\u2019s words carefully,\u201d Charles said.<\/p> A Greek prince, Philip married Elizabeth in 1947 and broke the news of her father\u2019s death five years later while they were in Kenya, meaning that she was queen at the age of 25.<\/p>\n He went on to play a key role helping the monarchy adapt to a changing world in the post-World War Two period.<\/p>\n Philip\u2019s charm and disinclination to tolerate those he regarded as foolish or sycophantic earned him respect from some but others found his sometimes brusque demeanour rude and aloof.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019ll be remembered as a moderniser in many ways, as someone who both inside the palace and outside the palace was a force for change,\u201d Simon Lewis, the queen\u2019s communications secretary from 1998 to 2001, told Reuters.<\/p>\n He said Philip\u2019s loss would be a terrible blow to the queen.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they were the most extraordinary partnership and that\u2019s going to be a huge, huge, gap,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI think he always saw himself partly as the eyes and the ears of the queen – that\u2019s gone forever.\u201d<\/p>\n