London - Britain's Queen Elizabeth will
pay tribute to her husband Prince Philip in her Christmas
message, and praise his "support and unique sense of humour".
The 96-year-old prince, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh,
has been at the queen's side throughout her 65 years on the
throne, and has regularly grabbed the headlines with his
off-colour comments.
He retired from regular royal duties over the summer, but
has continued to make occasional appearances, most recently
walking to the Christmas Eve church service on the royal
family's Sandringham estate.
The queen will also talk about the importance of home in her
message, and the sense of community in London and Manchester
after the capital's devastating Grenfell Tower fire and the
militant attacks in both cities.
"We think of our homes as place of warmth, familiarity and
love ... there is a timeless simplicity to the pull of home,"
she will say, according to excerpts from her speech released by
Buckingham Palace.
"This Christmas, I think of London and Manchester, whose
powerful identities shone through over the past 12 months in the
face of appalling attacks," she will add in the message which
will be broadcast at 1500 GMT.
Elizabeth, the world's longest reigning monarch, very rarely
talks about her husband.
On their golden wedding anniversary in 1997, she said he did
not take easily to compliments but had been her "strength and
stay all these years".
Philip, who has carried out more than 22,000 solo
engagements, developed a reputation for his comments, including
his remark about "slitty eyes" on a visit to China in the 1980s.
In the following decade, he said "Aren't most of you
descended from pirates?" to an islander in the Cayman Islands
and asked a driving instructor in Scotland: "How do you keep the
natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?"
The seasonal royal message dates back to King George V in
1932 and was first televised 60 years ago in 1957.