PRINCE Philip appeared to be having trouble standing to watch Remembrance Sunday commemorations in London today.
The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen watched the ceremonies from a balcony at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Whitehall, rather than laying wreaths themselves, amid concerns for their health.
Prince Philip appeared to be propping himself up as he stood on the balcony, while at other points he seemed to be leaning on a wall to support himself.
At some points when he stood the Queen appeared to admonish him and tell him to sit back down again.
It comes as Prince Charles stepped in to lay a wreath of poppies to commemorate Britain’s war dead on the Queen’s behalf.
The future king played the leading role in Remembrance Sunday memorial ceremonies in central London amid concerns the elderly monarch would struggle with the duties.
Meanwhile an equerry laid a wreath on behalf of Prince Philip after he retired from public life earlier this year.
Instead of participating in the ceremony themselves, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh watched from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
As head of the Armed Forces, Remembrance Sunday is seen as a significant annual event for the Queen.
Prince Charles also laid his own wreath at the central London monument to the war dead, in addition to laying a wreath on the Queen’s behalf.
The monarch yesterday marked Armistice Day alongside Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance.
Big Ben chimed for the first time in months this weekend as Britain remembered the brave veterans who gave their lives for the country in two world wars, and in conflicts since then.
Two minutes’ silence were observed across the country at 11am, representing the moment the guns of the First World War fell silent on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, at the eleventh hour on Armistice Day.
In Ypres, at the site of the World War 1 1917 Passchendaele battlefields, a poppy parade took place on Saturday. The battle, which took place 100 years ago, claimed 325,000 allied and 260,000 German casualties.
While British veterans involved in the liberation of France from the Nazis in 1944 were yesterday presented with France’s highest honour, the Légion d’Honneur, by Ambassador Jean-Pierre Jouyet.