When the 22-year-old Princess Elizabeth went into labour at Buckingham Palace on November 14, 1948, the Duke of Edinburgh changed into flannels and a roll-collar sweater.
He then went downstairs to the palace squash court for a game or two with his friend and private secretary, Lieutenant-Commander Michael Parker, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy.
He was still on the court when the news of Prince Charles’s birth was brought to him, apprising him that he had become a father for the first time. Bit of a lad, then!
