The British Royal family has been plunged in a state of sorrow as the news of Prince Philip, husband to Queen Elizabeth II; Duke of Edinburgh, was reported.

Buckingham palace disclosed that he died at the age of 99. He was said to have spent more than a month in the hospital after he had undergone a heart surgery. The news of his death was confirmed by his wife, Queen Elizabeth, in a statement.

“It is with a deep sorrow that her majesty the Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, his Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. “His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.

“The Royal family with people around the world are mourning his loss.” The Palace announced that further announcements would be made “in due course”. British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, paid tribute to the Duke at Downing Street just before 12:30pm today.

Johnson said, “He helped to steer the Royal family and the Monarchy so that it remain indisputably vital to the balance and happiness of our national life.” Notably, Philip was born on a kitchen table on the Greek Island of Corfu on June 1921, the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece, when he was a year and six months.

His family evacuated on a British Naval ship from politically unstable Greece, with the infant carried in a cot made from an orange box. They settled in Paris, and at seven Philip was sent away to school in England. He became a Royal Navy cadet following the outbreak of War in 1939, by 1945.

He was a first lieutenant and was a Tokyo bay for the Japanese surrender. When he married Queen Elizabeth, he gave up his titles as a prince of Greece and Denmark, and became a neutralized British subject.

Lolo Ijeoma Njoku reporting, Obinwannem News