Will of Prince Philip will remain private for 90 yrs

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Will of Prince Philip will remain private for 90 yrs

Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip talks to ex-servicemen during a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the English Legion in Valletta on 29 April 2001 at Malta's Cenotaph War Memorial in Floriana, outside Valletta. REUTERS Darrin Zammit Lupi File Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

London, September 16 : Reuters : The will of Prince Philip, the late husband of Queen Elizabeth, will remain private for at least 90 years to preserve his monarch's dignity, judge at the High Court of London has ruled.

He married the old Royal Duke of Edinburgh, who had lived with the 95-year-old British monarch for more than seven decades, died on April 9 at age 99 in his wife's Windsor Castle home to London West.

In keeping with a convention dating back to 1910, Andrew McFarlane said he agreed the court family division and that no copy of the will should be made for the record or kept on the court file He also ruled in favour of the request to exclude the value of estate from probate The degree of publicity that publication would likely be very extensive and wholly contrary to the aim of maintaining the dignity of the Sovereign, McFarlane said in a decision published on Thursday.

He said the convention was that after the death of a senior royal an application to seal the will was made to the Family Division President, with such hearings and judgments kept private.

He said he was the custodian of a safe containing more than 30 envelopes with the wills of dead royals.

The most recent additions were made in 2002 after the deaths of Queen Elizabeth's mother, Margaret, and her sister Princess Elizabeth, he said.