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Memorial to Elizabeth II could include reference to Prince Philip
Committee planning lasting tribute to late monarch understood to be keen to take into account how important husband was to her
The committee planning the memorial to Elizabeth II will consider including a reference to her late husband, The Telegraph understands.
It is hoped that the central role Prince Philip played in the late Queen’s 70-year reign will be represented somehow in the design of the memorial.
“They were very much a partnership”, said a source familiar with early thinking, noting how Elizabeth II once called her husband “my strength and stay”.
Discussions about the memorial are at a very early stage, with the unveiling pencilled in for 2026 to mark what would have been the Queen’s hundredth birthday year.
Planning is being undertaken by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee. Proposals will eventually be put to the King and the Prime Minister for the final sign-off.
Lord Janvrin, 76, one of the late Queen’s most loyal and trusted aides, was unveiled as the committee’s chairman last weekend. He was her private secretary from 1999 until 2007.
The full committee membership is yet to be named.
Buckingham Palace is expected to be kept informed by the committee throughout the process, with initial thinking, specific ideas and eventually designs regularly shared for feedback.
A palace source said: “It’s very early days and nothing has yet been ruled in or out.”
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip married on 20 November 1947, with the monarch decades later expressing how much of a support her husband had been during her reign.
In 1997, the Queen addressed the point in a speech to mark the couple’s golden wedding anniversary, in remarks still quoted to this day.
The Queen said: “All too often, I fear, Prince Philip has had to listen to me speaking. Frequently we have discussed my intended speech beforehand and, as you will imagine, his views have been expressed in a forthright manner.
“He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
Lord Janvrin’s committee will not just come up with a proposal for a physical memorial but also what has been called a “national legacy programme” or “living memorial”, to carry on the causes which the late Queen believed in.
Past monarchs have been memorialised as statues. The national memorial statue to King George V was unveiled in 1947 opposite the Houses of Parliament in Old Palace Yard.
A memorial statue of King George VI was unveiled on The Mall in 1955. In 2009, a statue of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was erected near to that of her husband.
On being announced as the committee chairman, Lord Janvrin said: “It is an honour to be asked to chair the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee.
“It will be a unique challenge to try to capture for future generations Her Late Majesty’s extraordinary contribution to our national life throughout her very long reign”.