THE Duke of Edinburgh was 30 years past the traditional retirement age by the time he decided to take it easier.

The announcement that Prince Philip, 95, will no longer carry out public engagements means many decades of public work will come to an end this autumn.

The Duke’s first recorded visit to Bournemouth was in September 1949, when, aged 28, he came to Dean Park cricket ground to captain his own XI, containing several England stars, against Hampshire.

In 1966, he visited Bryanston School near Blandford. In 1968, he was at Winfrith to activate its nuclear reactor. “The next stage is to exploit this success to world markets,” he said.

Later the same year, he was at the controls of a tank at Bovington, where he smothered the press pack with the vapour from the vehicle’s smoke bomb.

In 2009, the Queen and the Duke were at Bovington again, where Philip enjoyed a thorough look at the Tank Museum, before inspecting Olympic preparations at Weymouth.

In 2012, he was at Sherborne Abbey as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee tour. And, more recently, last October, the Duke visited Poundbury with the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.