Touching moment Prince Charles makes poignant visit to his grandmother’s resting place in Jerusalem for the first time
Heir to the throne lays flowers from his own garden at grave of Princess Alice of Greece - who was Duke of Edinburgh's mother
The PRINCE of Wales made a poignant visit to his grandmother's final resting place for the first time - bringing flowers from his garden to lay at her grave.
Charles paid his respects at the crypt of Princess Alice of Greece - the Duke of Edinburgh's mother - in Jerusalem on Friday after attending former Israeli president Shimon Peres' funeral.
During the moving visit, the Prince, who had long wanted to make the journey to the picturesque Church of St Mary Magdalene, above the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, placed flowers - which he picked himself from his Scottish retreat Birkhall - at her grave.
The Prince looked emotional as he was shown Alice's final resting place during the private visit.
Charles was only 21 years old when she died in 1969.
Her remains first lay at first in St George's Chapel, Windsor before they were reinterred in Jerusalem in 1988 as per her request to be buried near her aunt Elizabeth, the Grand Duchess of Russia, who was murdered by the Bolsheviks and declared a Russian Orthodox saint.
In 1993, Alice was hailed as "Righteous among the Nations" by the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem for her bravery in hiding a Jewish family from the Nazis who were occupying Greece in 1943.
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During that time, the Nazis sent more than 85 per cent of Greece's Jewish community to concentration camps.
Born Princess Alice of Battenberg in Windsor in 1885, Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece, becoming Princess Andrew of Greece.
She saw little of Philip when he was a child after falling ill and being committed to a sanatorium.
In later years, she went to live at Buckingham Palace and was said to walk around in a nun's habit, smoking Woodbines.
She founded an order of nuns and wore a habit to the Queen's coronation in 1953.
As youngsters, the Prince and his sister Princess Anne were pictured with Princess Alice in 1956, watching a passing ship from the rails of the Royal Yacht Britannia, while Alice lent on the rails, protectively holding Anne.
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