Prince Philip's 100th birthday exhibition could go ahead to help struggling Royal Collection Trust

An exhibition celebrating the life and times of the Duke of Edinburgh could help boost the finances of the Royal Collection Trust, it is hoped, as plans for a 100th birthday celebration turn to commemoration.

The RCT is reported to have been planning a photography exhibition to commemorate the Duke’s centenary later this year, with all activity now paused in the wake of his death.

If it were to go ahead with the permission of the Queen, and support of the Trust’s patron the Prince of Wales, it is hoped a modified exhibition could bring a much needed “blockbuster” for the charity, which has already suffered a drastic loss of income thanks to the coronavirus.

Its shops, in London, Windsor and Edinburgh and online, have now closed during the mourning period following the Duke’s death, and planned tours of the Buckingham Palace garden have been postponed.

All royal residences and galleries are shut, with the Trust’s website displaying a simple tribute to the Duke in line with the Queen’s wishes for mourning.

A Royal Collection Trust spokesman did not comment on whether the exhibition could go ahead when appropriate, noting that plans for the 100th birthday – though reported last year – have never been confirmed.

Admirers of the Duke will hope to have a chance to see carefully-curated images from his long life, and unique insight into the changing world through his decades in the public eye.

In December, The Telegraph reported that the palace were considering how to mark what would have been the Duke's 100th birthday on June 10, despite his constant desire to cause "no fuss".

The Royal Collection Trust has already suffered serious disruption and financial losses during the Covid-19 pandemic as galleries and palaces were closed in line with government guidelines.

The recent annual finance report from Buckingham Palace, released in September, recorded £5million lost in income from the RCT in the first months of the pandemic, with further damage caused by the winter lockdown.

The Royal Collection Trust last year borrowed £22million from Coutts, and is expected to lose more than £60million in 2020-21 after palaces closed last year.

The charity is dependent on tourists for 80 per cent of its income, with two-thirds of visitors coming from overseas.

The Duke has left a personal collection of 11,000 books in his personal library at Buckingham Palace, as well as his own paintings, letters and papers for the archives.

Andrew Morton, the royal biographer, this week wrote: “In his final few weeks the Duke, who had a horror of throwing anything away that might be of historical importance, was ensuring that his affairs were as ship-shape and Bristol fashion as this former Navy captain could make them.”