Prince Philip to undertake first public engagement since heart scare

The Duke of Edinburgh is to attend his first engagement since his heart scare when he marks the centenary of Scott's doomed expedition to the Antarctic.

Prince Philip, 90, will be guest of honour, with Prince Albert of Monaco, at a Cambridge University dinner tomorrow and will meet descendants of Scott, 100 years to the day the explorer and his party reached the South Pole.

Philip was in Papworth Hospital in Cambridge for five days over Christmas, having a stent fitted to unblock a coronary artery after complaining of chest pains. He went home on December 27 and has been recuperating at Sandringham.

The Duke was the first member of the royal family to visit the Antarctic, in December 1956 after opening the Olympic Games in Melbourne. He undertook 330 engagements last year, making him the sixth-busiest.

While in Cambridge he is also due to visit the Scott Polar Research Institute's exhibition, entitled These Rough Notes, which tells the story of Scott's fateful expedition through the journals and letters of the explorer and his four colleagues who perished on their return from the pole, to which they were beaten by Norwegian, Roald Amundsen.

Philip's next scheduled public appearance is on February 5 when he is due to attend the Royal British Legion's 90th anniversary parade in King's Lynn, Norfolk.