Prince Philip funeral: Andrew arrives in suit after Queen ruled NO royal to wear a uniform

Prince Andrew today arrived in Windsor for Philip’s funeral in a suit after the Queen denied his demand to wear an Admiral’s uniform.   

The monarch pulled rank earlier this week and decreed that none of the royal guests would be in military dress after her middle son caused a stir.

Preparing to walking in the procession behind his father’s hearse, the funeral is the most visible the Duke of York has been for more than a year. 

His television tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh last week was the first time he has spoken publicly in 512 days after stepping down from royal duties following the disastrous Newsnight interview about Jeffrey Epstein.  

But reports quickly emerged that he was planning to attend the ceremony at Windsor Castle as an Admiral and even asked his tailor to start stitching the rank.  

It raised eyebrows as, although serving in the Navy, Andrew never reached the rank of Admiral.   

His last serving rank was Lietenant-Commander, which was raised to Commander when he left active service in 2005.

Under a Navy policy, he received a promotion every five years meaning he was promoted to Honorary Captain in 2005, Rear Admiral in 2010 and Vice Admiral in 2015.

Andrew was due to be made an Admiral on his 60th birthday last year but asked if this could be deferred until he returned to frontline royal duties – which he has not. 

The Queen’s ruling that everyone would wear suits is also thought to spare Prince Harry’s blushes.

After quitting life as a senior royal and moving to California, the Duke of Sussex, who served in the Army, was forced to give up his honorary military positions and associations. 

The funeral itself is steeped in military tradition and will feature many servicemen and women after Philip requested a military, and not state, funeral.

But former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter this week said the Queen ‘put her foot down’ so everyone would be dressed the same.

He said: ‘There has been this that Harry, not entitled to wear a uniform, he walked out of the royal family and then walked out of royal life.

‘When he got married in 2018 he actually had to ask the Queen permission that he could wear his uniform to wear dress uniform at his wedding. When you leave the service, you can’t just put your uniform on, it’s the gift of the Queen to say yay or nay.

‘As for Andrew, well he was effectively fired for that disastrous Newsnight interview justifying his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, so he was not entitled to wear that uniform either.

‘It’s a bit like school: you can’t have some people in one thing and others in another, so the Queen put her foot down and decided everyone’s going to be the same.’

Andrew was due to walk in the second row of the procession adjacent to his brother Prince Edward, and behind Price Charles and Princess Anne in the first row.

His daughters Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice – and their husbands – are also among the 30 handpicked guests.

Last week, after his father died aged 99, Andrew said the Queen was ‘feeling it, I think, probably more than everybody else’, calling her ‘incredibly stoic’.

In a piece to camera he said: ‘She described it as having left a huge void in her life.

‘But we – the family, the ones that are closer – are rallying round to make sure that we’re there to support her, and I know there is a huge amount of support not just for her but for everybody as we go through this enormous change.’