A LYMINGTON antique dealer is to sell a photo album featuring Prince Philip visiting far-flung places around the world. 

An album featuring 74 images of the late Duke of Edinburgh, some of which have never been published before, is on sale at Wick Antiques for £1,250. 

Taken by an official photographer of the royal and compiled by a crew member on the Royal Yacht Britannia, the pictures are from the prince’s solo round-the-world cruise in 1959. 

The album follows the four-month journey from Portsmouth, through the Mediterranean, down the Suez Canal, to Singapore, Hong Kong and then through a number of South Pacific islands and back via the Panama Canal. 

Photographs show the Duke, who served in the Royal Navy during World War II, being taken during a trip to the Solomon Islands. 

He is shown being carried aloft in a boat by dozens of natives on the island of Vaitupu before a feast of roast-suckling pig and breadfruit. 

The prince is pictured approaching Gizo in the Solomon Islands in a war canoe before the party is entertained by a re-enactment of natives killing a missionary. 

Antique dealer Charles Wallrock of Wick Antiques, Lymington, said: “Flicking through this album is a remarkable journey back in time, and the contrast between the duke in his white uniform and the often grass-skirted South Pacific Islanders is clear. 

“But so are the smiles on the faces of everyone as the different cultures meet in locations right around the world. 

“There are two photographers listed as crew – both ‘Leading Airmen’, A Masters and T Roberts – and the album is likely to have been put together by one of them. 

“It is neatly captioned and includes a map of the voyage that went right around the world. 

“There are some fascinating photos of what happened when Britannia passed over the equator. 

“The crew are in bizarre fancy dress and the Duke appears to be joining in with the traditional ‘crossing the line’ ceremony. 

“One photograph shows a half-sunken Japanese ship from the war and in the accompanying book to the voyage the legacy of the war in that region is apparent.” 

The book can be viewed at on the Wick Antiques website.