The Queen has presented the Duke of Edinburgh with a rare honour as a special anniversary present as they celebrate 70 years of marriage.
As the royal couple reached their milestone platinum wedding anniversary, the Queen appointed Prince Philip a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the sovereign.
The touching gesture will be seen as the Queen's recognition of the devotion Philip has shown through the decades, supporting her publicly and privately.
Philip, 96, retired from his public role in the summer after years of royal duty alongside the monarch.
He is the longest-serving royal consort in British history, and the Queen, the nation's longest reigning monarch, is the first to celebrate a 70th wedding anniversary.
Awards in the Royal Victorian Order are made personally by the Queen and bestowed independently of Downing Street.
The monarch presented Philip with the honour at Windsor Castle, where they are marking their anniversary privately.
They are celebrating with close family and friends at a special dinner at the Berkshire residence on Monday evening.
Philip is already a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, a Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle and a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Now he will have four UK order of chivalry breast stars. The last UK citizen to equal this was his uncle Lord Mountbatten of Burma.
Philip also has many other honours including the Order of Merit, Order of New Zealand and Knight, Order of Australia.
The Queen was a 21-year-old princess when she married her consort Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey.
The fairy-tale royal wedding was a morale booster in the tough years that followed the Second World War and millions of people tuned in to listen to the ceremony on the wireless.
Wartime leader Winston Churchill summed up the occasion as "a flash of colour on the hard road we travel".
Less than five years after the royal wedding, the princess became Queen on the death of her father George VI.
Together, the Queen and Philip have celebrated the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees of the Queen's reign, and faced ups and downs over the years including the breakdown of three of their four children's marriages, and the backlash which followed the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
With their family growing year by year, the Queen and Philip are preparing to welcome their sixth great-grandchild in April - a third child for the the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
They already have five great-grandchildren - Savannah and Isla Phillips, Mia Tindall, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, as well as eight grandchildren - Peter and Zara Phillips, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and Viscount Severn, and their own four children the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex.
Bells at the historic Abbey in central London have rung out in tribute on Monday, with a full celebratory peal lasting around three hours and 20 minutes.
A series of portraits of the Queen and Philip taken by British photographer Matt Holyoak was released to mark the platinum anniversary.
