Prince Philip's children paid heartfelt tributes to their father in interviews broadcast last night after the Duke of Edinburgh's death on Friday morning at the age of 99.
Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward, as well as Princess Anne, reflected on their relationship with their father in pre-recorded interviews with the BBC and paid tribute to his extraordinary life.
Britain has entered eight days of mourning ahead of Philip's expected funeral next Saturday.
The duke was the Queen's 'strength and guide' throughout their 73-year marriage and her 69-year reign, and there was an outpouring of grief across the country and throughout the world when news of his death broke.
In a BBC tribute to Prince Philip's life featuring his children as well as individuals like Sir David Attenborough, Prince Charles led his siblings as they remembered their father.
'Well, you know, he didn't suffer fools. So if you said anything that was in any way ambiguous - he'd say 'make up your mind!
Perhaps it's made one choose your words carefully. He was very good at showing you how to do things, instruct you in various things.
His energy was astonishing, in supporting my mama, and doing it for such a long time, and some extraordinary way being able to go on doing it for so long. What he has done has amounted to an astonishing achievement.'
'Like any other family at the time, your parents went out to work in the day. But in the evening, just the same as any other family, we would get together, we would sit on the sofa as a group and he would read to us.'
'He treated everybody as an individual and gave them the respect that he felt they were due as individuals.
As you grew older, there was a lot of talking to you about the things he had done, so you became aware of what else was going on and the things he'd been doing.
But there was a huge amount of encouragement to do things and quite a lot of leeway of pushing your own boundaries, which is probably not given to many nowadays, I have to say.
I think I will best remember him as always being there. And a person you could bounce off ideas, but if you were having problems you could always go to him and know that he would listen and try to help.'
'My father was always a great source of support and encouragement, and guidance all the way through, and never trying to curtail any of the activities or anything that we wanted to try and do but always encourage that.
I will always remember and thank him for that.'
Both Princess Anne and Prince Edward also gave an interview to ITV, recorded before Philip's death, to be released afterwards.
Anne told ITV News' royal editor Chris Ship how Philip was 'able to keep pace with the kind of technological changes that have such an impact' on society over the course of his 99-year life.
She spoke movingly of her father's decision to give up his career in the Royal Navy in 1951, so he could support the Queen, pointing to how it showed 'a real understanding of the pressure [she] was going through'.
The duke joined the Royal Navy in 1939 when he was still a teenager.
By 1942, he had risen to the rank of First Lieutenant after bravely fighting in the Battle of Crete and the conflict at Cape Matapan.
His glittering career saw him amass a chestful of medals, which he proudly displayed at numerous functions.
Princess Anne also told the broadcaster that the Prince Consort's long-lasting legacy would be embodied in the Duke of Edinburgh Award he founded in 1956 to give young people a structured outlet.
Edward agreed that the spread of the Duke of Edinburgh Award to more than 140 countries, including beyond the Commonwealth, is 'enormous testament to that original vision'.
The earl also said how Philip and the Queen, who met as teenagers before the Second World War, had been a 'fantastic support' to each other.
'For what he has done in his public life for all the organisations he has supported and influenced, and obviously as my father and husband to my mother and all the work that he has done there and as a family, we will remember that more than anything else,' he movingly told ITV News.
Anne said in a pre-recorded interview:
'Without him, life will be completely different. But I think also from society's perspective, he's been able to keep pace with the kind of technological changes which have had such an impact… but at the bottom of all that it's not about the technology it's about the people.'
She said of his position as the longest-serving Prince Consort:
'It must have evolved quite dramatically from the early stages. I don't think the structure in terms of support to the monarchy was designed to deal with a consort.
Nobody had thought about what he was going to do. And it took a while to find people who understood he had extraordinary experience and skills that they could make use of. But he also found ways he could make an impact.'
Prince Charles was seen leaving Windsor Castle this evening, hours after the news of his father's death broke.
The Prince of Wales visited his mother on Friday travelling from his Gloucestershire home, sources have said.
The Royal Family said in a statement:
'It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss'.
Speaking about Philip's childhood, Anne described his lifestyle as 'nomadic' and suggested it 'must have been really quite difficult because he was that much younger than his sisters.'
The duke, born on 10 June 1921 on the kitchen table at his family home Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu, was forced to flee his homeland after the King of Greece was exiled from his own country amid war.
In the political recriminations that followed, Philip's father, a Lieutenant-General in the Greek army, was accused of high treason after allegedly disobeying an order and abandoning his post with his cavalry regiment in the face of attack during the catastrophic Greco-Turkish War which followed the 1914-18 war.
The family managed to escape on British naval vessel HMS Calypso, with the newborn prince famously carried to safety in a cot crafted from an unused fruit box.
With his mother in a psychiatric clinic and his exiled father mostly absent, the young duke spent his early years living with various relatives.
'He [Philip] was virtually a refugee at this stage, because he had nowhere else to go, literally,' Anne said. 'And that probably is why Gordonstoun had such an impact.'
Philip's grounding at Gordonstoun School, a boarding school in Moray, Scotland, ultimately fuelled his life-long passion for sports and shaped his famed Duke of Edinburgh Award, which he hoped would encourage others to find extra-curriculum activities they too were passionate about.
'The Duke of Edinburgh Award is probably among the best-known of the foundations in his name and initially started by his former headmaster Kurt Hahn, who, when it was rolled out beyond Gordonstoun, came to my father and said 'would you get involved in this.'
My father got Lord Hunt involved in helping to shape how it would roll out and that was of course one of his geniuses, being able to find the right people to take things on and shape them.'
The fact it has now spread to more than 140 countries, way beyond the Commonwealth, way beyond the English speaking world, is enormous testament to that original vision.'
Edward told ITV News that his father had a 'wonderful' sense of humour, but people could misinterpret things or 'turn it against them'.
'He used to give them as good as he got and always in a very entertaining way,' the earl said.
He was brilliant. Always absolutely brilliant. He had a wonderful sense of humour but of course you can always misinterpret something or turn it against them, so it sounds like it's not right.
But anyone who had the privilege to hear him speak said it was his humour, which always came through and the twinkle in his eye.'
A frail Philip was last seen leaving hospital for Windsor on March 16.
His death plunges the nation and the Royal Family into mourning and brings to an end his lifetime of service to Britain and to Elizabeth, the Queen who adored him since her teens.
The couple shared their 73rd wedding anniversary last November, and he was due to turn 100 on June 10 this year.
Hundreds gathered in the spring sunshine at the palace and in Windsor, where many hugged and wiped away tears as they laid flowers in his memory - and left messages of love and support for the Queen and her family.
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