Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday marked her 70th wedding anniversary with the release of a new portrait of herself with husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The royal couple’s platinum anniversary falls on Monday, when they have planned a private dinner with family and friends at Windsor Castle while the bells of Westminster Abbey in London, where they married on November 20, 1947, will toll to mark the occasion.
In the commemorative portrait, the 91-year-old Queen is wearing a cream day dress designed by Angela Kelly, her personal assistant and dressmaker since 2002. She also wears a “Scarab” brooch in yellow gold, carved ruby and diamond, designed by Andrew Grima and given to the Queen as a gift in 1966. Prince Philip, 96, is seen standing by her side in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle in the photograph taken earlier this month and distributed by the Camera Press agency.
The photograph by celebrity photographer Matt Holyoak shows the smiling couple flanked by artist Thomas Gainsborough’s paintings of King George III and Queen Charlotte from 1781. The release of the new portrait is accompanied by the issue of a new set of six postage stamps by Royal Mail to mark the milestone for the longest-serving monarch and the longest-living consort in British history.
