London, Nov 18 : Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip have welcomed their diamond anniversary by posing for photographs in the grounds of the country house where they spent their wedding night.

The couple married at Westminster Abbey in November 1947. After the ceremony the newlyweds were photographed as they walked through the parklands of Broadlands, then the family home of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the groom's uncle.

In the new photographs, the couple look more peaceful, but no less affectionate, as the Queen, 81, looks up and smiles warmly at her 86-year-old husband, with Broadlands, the magnificent Georgian mansion house near Romsey in Hampshire, standing in the background.

The Queen and Prince Philip will celebrate their diamond-wedding anniversary on Nov 20 when they fly to Malta, the island where the newly married couple spent some of their happiest days when Prince Philip served there as a Royal Navy officer.

The Prince of Wales will give a dinner for his parents and 20 members of the Royal Family at Clarence House, his London home.

There will also be a special service of thanksgiving on Nov 19 at Westminster Abbey, reports the Daily Mail.

Some 2,000 people, including more than 30 members of the Royal Family, among them the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Princes William and Harry, will get together for the event.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, and his predecessors Lady Thatcher and Sir John Major, are among those invited.

Prince William will give a reading, while the Archbishop of Canterbury will bless the Royal couple and deliver the address.

Dame Judi Dench will read a specially commissioned poem by Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate. (ANI)