Prince George's 8th Birthday Photo Subtly Honors Late Philip

Jul 23, 2021

The eldest of the Cambridge kids, Prince George, turned 8 years old on Thursday. And as expected, Kate Middleton snapped a never-before-seen photo of the birthday boy to commemorate this future king’s special day.

George is pictured at Anmer Hall, Kate and Prince William’s getaway on Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. What’s notable about the birthday photo — besides George’s toothy grin and his striped polo shirt — is that it seems to pay tribute to the late Prince Philip, the boy’s great-grandfather. The 8-year-old sits atop a Land Rover Defender, the same make that Philip requested and designed exclusively for his own funeral hearse. Philip also owned multiple Land Rover’s throughout his long life.

According to The Telegraph, Prince George and his family will celebrate the 8-year-old royal’s birthday privately. Last year, the Cambridge brood similarly commemorated George’s birthday, with Kate taking a photo of the then-7-year-old in a camouflage shirt at Anmer Hall.

George is Queen Elizabeth II’s great-grandchild and is third in the line of royal succession. If things go as planned, George will become king after his grandfather Charles, the Prince of Wales, and after his father, the Duke of Cambridge. He will be England’s 43rd monarch since 1066.

Friends and fans of the royal family wished George a happy birthday on Instagram, where the official Duke and Duchess of Cambridge account posted the exclusive snapshot early on Thursday morning in England. Since the Cambridges have shared the photo, it has already accumulated more than 900,000 likes and 17,000 comments at the time of publication. 

“Turning eight(!) tomorrow 🥳🎂,” the post’s caption reads along with a photo attribution to Kate.

In the photo, George sits on the hood of the Land Rover Defender, which sells for upwards of $60,000, wearing an orange and blue polo shirt and a blue pair of casual chino shorts.

Prince Philip, who died in April 2021 at the age of 99, had an admiration for Land Rovers, driving one his entire life, according to Town & Country. In fact, the prince specifically requested that his funeral hearse be a Land Rover that he had been designing for 18 years. Unfortunately, George and his siblings were not able to attend Philip’s funeral because of coronavirus restrictions that limited the ceremony to only 30 people. It’s therefore likely that the Land Rover featured in George’s birthday photo is a subtle tribute to the 8-year-old boy’s late great-grandfather, whom he couldn’t say goodbye to in person.

In the background of the photo, we also see the idyllic setting of Norfolk, a county on the west coast of England.

According to Town & Country, the Cambridges' home in Norfolk, Anmer Hall, was a wedding gift from the queen herself. Although the residence is mainly used as a country retreat, with the family mostly living at Kensington Palace, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent much of the coronavirus lockdown at the residence.

The home and its surroundings are often featured in Kate and William’s official media presence. For instance, the couple released a romantic video, which was filmed in Norfolk near their Anmer Hall residence. And this Thursday saw the Cambridges once again using the bucolic countryside getaway as a backdrop for George’s birthday photo shoot.

For fans of the royal family, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Kate is behind George’s professional-looking birthday portrait, as the duchess has made a tradition out of sharing her own snapshots of the kids on their birthdays. The former art history student and patron of the Royal Photographic Society has also released photos on other special occasions, like when Charlotte volunteered to deliver food during the coronavirus crisis.

“Everyone's like, 'Mummy, please stop taking photographs,’” Kate joked in a 2021 interview ahead of her photo book “Hold Still’s” release.

In this way, George’s July 22 photo was to be expected.

Prince George Alexander Louis was born on July 22, 2013 in the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s hospital, where Prince Harry and William were also born. George’s birth, like all new additions to the royal family, was met with huge crowds filled with reporters and fans of the royal family.

"He has a good pair of lungs on him," William told reporters following George’s birth. "He's a big boy; he's quite heavy.”

"It was very emotional, it is such a special time; any parent knows what this feeling is like," George’s mother, Kate, added.

George and Charlotte attend Thomas’s Battersea, located in south London. However, the private school only educates children up until the age of 13, and so George is nearing the age when he will have to find a different school. According to the Evening Standard, George is likely to attend Eton College in Windsor, England. The boarding school for boys is known for educating the elite, with alumni such as William, Harry and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

Happy Birthday, Prince George! What do you think about this subtle tribute to Prince Philip? Are you excited to see what this future king will do? Let us know — and be sure to pass this story on to others.