Palace staff have started a collection to buy them a gift of crockery. A private celebration lunch for 150 at Windsor Castle is planned for their anniversary eve.
Just what Prince Philip is giving the Queen to mark their diamond wedding on November 20 remains a royal secret, but friends recall that 60 years ago the rakish naval officer personally designed his bride's engagement ring, made with diamonds given him by his mother.
"Oh, they were so lovely together - he so vigorous and good-looking, and she so beautiful," recalls the Queen's lifelong friend and fellow octogenarian Pru Penn - Lady Penn, widow of Sir Eric, who was the Queen's Comptroller.
Now the Queen is 81 and Philip 86 and "she does worry about him," says Lady Penn, "especially when he wants to do things he shouldn't do, like carriage driving - in case he falls or hurts himself."
True to type, the Queen's husband leaves nothing to chance, not even growing old. Wherever he goes, his exercise "chest expanders" - sprung metal coils with a handle at each end, made popular more than half a century ago by former bodybuilder Charles Atlas - are in his luggage.
