Charles awards Edward the ‘highest honour in Scotland’
THE King has appointed the Duke of Edinburgh to the Order of the Thistle as four new images of him are released to mark his 60th birthday.
Appointments to the order – the highest honour in Scotland – are entirely in the personal gift of the King and do not require prime ministerial advice.
The three other new recipients of the order are anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black, distinguished lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy, and Scotland’s first black professor Sir Geoff Palmer.
The new appointments are effective from today, and the installation ceremony is expected to take place over the summer.
The order has a complement of 16 knights and ladies, and in addition the Queen, the Princess Royal and the Duke of Rothesay, as the Prince of Wales is known in Scotland, are Royal Knights of the Thistle.
Charles made Edward the Duke of Edinburgh to mark his 59th birthday, and he had his first solo engagement with the title at the Palace of Holyroodhouse a few days later, hosting participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
The King’s brother will celebrate today.
In a rare newspaper interview, Edward said the monarchy is “as important as ever” in “trying to bring people together”.
He told the Daily Mail: “Our role – being part of the monarchy – in trying to bring people together is as important as ever, if not more so today.
“I think we all wonder how we can reach out to those communities who perhaps don’t always think that this, the monarchy, is something for them.”
The duke carried out a series of engagements with the
Duchess of Edinburgh ahead of his milestone birthday. He was presented with a Leeds Rhinos rugby shirt with “HRH 60” on the back to mark the date, during a visit to Headingley Stadium in Leeds on Friday.
Edward noticed the detail on the back and said to his wife: “Yours is more subtle than mine.”
An emotional Sophie then paid a tearful tribute to Edward at the end of the Community Sport and Recreation Awards, saying he was “the best of fathers, the most loving of husbands and he is still my best friend” – and she was “so proud of the man he is”.