D of E awards

A few of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s lesser-known titles and honours:

— Royal Chief of the Order of Logohu (Papua New Guinea); Grand Commander of the Order of Maritime Merit of the San Francisco Port Authority; Grand Cross in Brilliants of the Order of the Sun of Peru;

Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon (Iceland); Member First Class of the Order of the Supreme Sun (Afghanistan); Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (Japan); Grand Cross with Chain in the Order of the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia).

Paying their respects

The Duke of Edinburgh will have only 30 mourners at his funeral, thanks to Covid restrictions. How many people have attended or watched royal funerals?

— 305,806 people walked past the body of George VI as it lay in state in 1952.

— 31.1 million Britons watched Princess Diana’s funeral on television in 1997, with the worldwide figure put at 2.5 billion.

— 450 guests attended Princess Margaret’s non-televised funeral at Windsor in 2002.

— 2,200 guests attended the Queen Mother’s funeral at Westminster Abbey in 2002. Around 10.4 million people watched the event on television.

April snow showers

How often does it snow in April?

— The UK experiences an average of 2.3 days of snow in April, ranging from 14 days in the Cairngorms to less than one in London and parts of southern England.

— In 1981 29cm of snow was recorded in Sheffield on 25 April and 25cm of snow in Okehampton, Devon on 26 April.

— Last week, the temperature fell to –9.4°C at Tulloch Bridge in the Highlands. But on 2 April 1917 it fell to –15.4°C at Eskdalemuir in Dumfriesshire.

Women in the saddle

Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National. Women have been allowed in the race since 1977, but female jockeys go back a lot further:

— The first recorded in a competitive race was Alicia Meynell, who challenged her brother-in-law, Captain Flint, to a ‘battle of the sexes’ race at York in 1825, watched by a reported crowd of 100,000, for a wager variously reported as 500 or 1,500 guineas. Despite riding side-saddle, she began as favourite and led for most of the way until her horse (owned by her lover, Colonel Thornton) tired. She accused Captain Flint of discourtesy in taking advantage and overtaking her — and refused to pay up.