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The Duke of Edinburgh provided the key to unlock the identity of bodies found in an unmarked grave as the last Tsarina of Russia Alexandra and her five daughters.
By offering a sample of his blood to experts in 1993, the Queen’s husband made possible for scientists to piece together the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his relatives and what happened to their bodies.
Prince Philip is is related through the maternal line with the lost Russian reigning family, being the grand-nephew of the Tsarina, with her older sister Victoria Mountbatten his maternal grandmother.
Scientists who received the blood sample could compare the Tsar’s own DNA, the Prince’s and the ones of the bodies found in a grave in Yekaterinburg in July 1991.
The investigation was conducted by Dr Peter Gill and his team at the Forensic Science Service, who invited the Duke to assist their work.
Now the bumpy road that brought scientists to prove “virtually beyond doubt” the fate of the Romanovs is to be shared with the public though a new exhibition at the London’ Science Museum called The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution.
The display is due to open upon the 100th anniversary of the family’s murder in September 2018, and will explore the scientific development that helped shed a light on the end of the Romanovs.
A spokesman said: “This investigation was one of the first occasions that forensic DNA analysis was used to solve a historic case, involving the best British experts under the direction of Dr Peter Gill from the Forensic Science Service.
“Blood samples from relatives, including His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, and advances in DNA profiling and 3D reconstruction, helped to positively identify the remains of the imperial family and enabled the investigation to reach convincing conclusions.”
Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei were killed on July 17, 1918, in Ekaterinburg, in the wake of the Russian Revolution.
Their bodies were left in two unmarked graves.
The Duke, now 97, has spoken in the past of his relation with the Romanovs.
When asked in 1967 whether he would have visited the then Soviet Union, he said: “I would like to go to Russia very much, although the b******s murdered half my family.”
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