The Duke of Edinburgh will be laid to rest later on today at St George’s Chapel in a private ceremony that has been limited to just 30 mourners including his wife, Queen Elizabeth. 

Preparations for the royal funeral are well on the way with Prince Philip’s coffin moved hours ahead of the ceremony from Windsor Castle’s private chapel to the royal residence’s inner halls.

His coffin will then be moved to St George’s Chapel in a Land Rover which he helped to design.

Soldiers and the general public have already begun paying tribute to the late Prince before the ceremony officially begins at 3pm BST. 

But it isn’t just the United Kingdom that is mourning.

The passing of Prince Philip is being commemorated across the world, including in Malta too, where reenactors of the Malta Command WW2 Living History group honoured the Duke of Edinburgh outside Villa Guardamangia, where he and the Queen lived from 1949 to 1951. 

Moreover, earlier today, crowds gathered at Upper Barrakka Gardens to witness a nine-gun salute – one salute for each decade of the late Prince’s life.

 

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It has been over 70 years since Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth first stepped foot in Malta to begin their Mediterranean life together. 

Below is a collection of photographs of their first royal visit to the island between November and December 1949, courtesy of William J. Jones.