Today we learn of the death of the Queen’s loyal and devoted husband Prince Philip – someone who has been with her every step of the way throughout her long reign and before and someone she relied on both to support her and to advise her.

Her Majesty, The Queen is a woman who has served as Queen for 68 years and barely put a foot wrong in those seven decades.

She has today lost the love of her life, and the man who helped her throughout.

Britain today has lost one of its greatest servants.

We Thank You Prince Philip for your service to our country in both Wartime and later as The Queen’s most loyal husband and companion throughout your long life. Thank You again

We pay our tribute to The Duke of Edinburgh here by linking to a film made of The Queen and Prince Philip’s tour of Australia in 1954 showing to the world, in an era long before live Television, a cinema released colour film of the whole tour – made in Ferraniacolor

To put the success of this visit in perspective when the 27 year old Queen sailed into Sydney harbour on 3 February 1954, she practically stopped the nation. Her arrival at Farm Cove, attracted an estimated 1 million onlookers in a city with a population of 1,863,161 (1954 ABS Census). Those who couldn’t be there in person could listen to ABC radio’s nation-wide coverage of the historic occasion.

Here again as always Prince Philip was at her side

The Duke of Edinburgh had in fact  six decades as an official and very colourful Royal visitor to Australia.

As head of the Commonwealth, the Queen is the head of state in 16 nations, including the English-speaking, Westminster democracies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand.  

The Queen is always warmly welcomed wherever she has travelled in Australia.

On some occasions, however, the Duke has visited Australia without the Queen, such as when he opened the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the 1962 Empire Games in Perth and the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra in 1965.

He was also by the Queen’s side when she opened the Sydney Opera House in 1973 and the new Parliament House in 1988 as Australia was commemorating its bicentenary. 

ABOVE – This 1954 film— in CinemaScope and Eastman Color/Colour—covers the earlier-in-the-year six-months tour of the British Commonwealth by Queen Elizabeth and Philip, later joined by Prince Charles and Princess Anne toward the end of the trip.

This film includes visits to the Fiji Islands, Tongo, the Cocos Islands, Ceylon, Africa, New Zealand as well as Australia.

We see lots of native music and tribal dances and scenery in between shots of the Royal pair arriving and departing.

For many of these visits The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled by the Royal Yacht – and they loved it. It must have been so exciting for them to sail from Australia to New Zealand then on to Fiji and Tonga through the Pacific Ocean. They would just be able to make those visits and then return to their ‘little home’ on the ocean