The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Edward receives highest award on 60th birthday
The King has appointed the Duke of Edinburgh to the Order of the Thistle as the duke marked his 60th birthday yesterday.
Appointments to the order – the highest honour in Scotland – are entirely in the personal gift of the King and do not require prime ministerial advice.
The three other new recipients of the order are anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black, distinguished lawyer Helena, Baroness Kennedy and Scotland’s first black professor, Sir Geoff Palmer.
The installation ceremony is expected to take place over the summer. The order has a complement of 16 knights and ladies, and in addition the Queen, the Princess Royal and the Duke of Rothesay, as the Prince of Wales is known in Scotland, are “Extra Knights and Ladies” of the Thistle.
The King made Prince Edward the Duke of Edinburgh to mark his 59th birthday. The new duke had his first engagement with the title a few days later, hosting participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
Queen Elizabeth II granted him the additional title of Earl of Forfar to mark his 55th birthday, and he holds several patronages of Scottish charitable organisations, including the Edinburgh International Festival.
Prof Black is an anatomist and forensic anthropologist whose research on human morphology and biometrics has been used to assist with international war-crime investigations and to identify those involved in mass-fatality events.
Baroness Kennedy is the recipient of 42 honorary degrees from many universities, including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh, in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education.
She has also been honoured by the governments of France and Italy for her considerable work on women’s rights.
Sir Geoff Palmer pioneered the use of the scanning electron microscope to study cereal grains, sits on the boards of community organisations and has received honorary degrees from various academic institutions.
He has published books on race relations, and cereal science and technology.
In newly released images, Prince Edward is pictured seated in an informal setting outside, and smiling with his three dogs: Labrador Teal, cocker spaniel Mole and Labrador puppy Teasel.