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Wellwishers continue to leave flowers for duke despite Covid concerns

Wellwishers continue to leave flowers for duke despite Covid concerns

Wellwishers are continuing to leave floral tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, despite calls for them to stay away due to coronavirus concerns.

Young children were among a steady stream of people who arrived at both places throughout Saturday morning to pay their respects.

Crowds were growing outside Cambridge Gate at Windsor Castle, taking pictures and leaving tributes including paper crowns and a union flag.

Local resident Craig Truter and his three young children were among those who left tributes at Cambridge Gate.

His sons Ranger, six, and Bale, four, laid hand-made paper crowns with the initials HRHPP (His Royal Highness Prince Philip).

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People gathered outside Windsor Castle on Saturday (Steve Parsons/PA)

Mr Truter said his children had made the crowns “as a sign of respect” for the duke and saw members of the royal family “quite frequently”.

He added that his family had been “lucky enough” to have been among the members of the public invited inside the castle grounds for the wedding of Princess Eugenie.

At the Queen’s central London home, guards in red could be seen marching in the courtyard as a slow but steady stream of people arrived to lay bouquets at the front gates.

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Elaine and Maya (left) Jamieson from Berkshire, leave flowers outside Windsor Castle (Steve Parsons/PA)

Nikoletta Peto visited the palace shortly after 9am.

Ms Peto, 39, who is originally from Hungary said: “I have lived here for 15 years and I felt like it’s important to give a flower to someone who is so respected and who has done so much for this country.

“So definitely I wanted to come, even though because of Covid I was shielding for over a year.”

She added: “I felt like I have to do it because I think it is how it should be.”

Rebecca Connoll laid some flowers with her five-year-old son Harvey.

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Flowers have been left outside Buckingham Palace (Yui Mok/PA)

She said: “My husband’s in the Army, he’s in the Household Cavalry, so he does a lot of big events with the royal family.

“So we just thought we’d come and pay our respects.”

She added: “We watched it on the news yesterday and we watch a lot of the royal things, we come down and watch the parades, he knows quite a lot about the royal family.”

The public have been told at both Windsor and Buckingham Palace that tributes will be moved elsewhere throughout the day.

The royal family and the Government have both urged people not to leave flowers outside royal residences.

Buckingham Palace asked people to consider making a donation to charity instead, and memorial pages dedicated to the duke on the royal.uk website suggested donations could be made to organisations of which Philip was patron.

On Friday a Cabinet Office spokesman appealed for people to “continue to follow public health advice, particularly on avoiding meeting in large groups and on minimising travel”.