THE DUKE of Edinburgh will lead the farewells to the QE2 tomorrow as the liner leaves her home port of Southampton on her final voyage.

It will be Prince Philip's seventh visit to the vessel which was launched by the Queen on the Clyde in Scotland in September 1967.

The Duke will attend on-board ceremonies, watch fly-pasts and observe, at 11am, the Remembrance Day two-minute silence to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice.

At 11am, a million poppies will be dropped from a Tiger Moth aircraft over the QE2 which will later sail to Dubai where it will become a floating hotel.

The vessel will dock at Southampton at 6.30am tomorrow and will then leave at 7.15pm by which time thousands of people are expected to have gathered to see the liner off.

After the two-minute silence, Prince Philip will meet QE2 crew members who travelled on the vessel when it was used as a troop ship in the Falklands War in 1982.

The Duke will tour the ship and will later present to the Mayor of Southampton a painting of the QE2 which was unveiled by the Queen when she made her farewell visit to the liner in June this year.

Prince Philip will also meet long-serving staff, as well as the former captains of HMS Ardent, Antelope and Coventry - ships that were lost in the Falklands campaign.

The Duke will also watch a flypast by a Harrier jet from the aft decks of QE2.

After the QE2 moves off, she will stop for a time and a pre-recorded message from her master, Captain Ian McNaught, will be broadcast on a specially-erected screen in Southampton's Mayfair Park.

There will then be a firework display and the QE2, with whistle blasting, will move away from Southampton for the last time.

The QE2 has sailed nearly six million nautical miles, gone round the world 25 times, crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times and carried more than 2.5 million passengers.

Among the passengers carried by the ship in its many years of service were the Beatles. Tribute band the Silver Beatles will be performing live tomorrow at Mayflower Park.

The final voyage to Dubai was sold out almost instantly, with the highest-priced berths going for more than £28,000.

With the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) now the Cunard flagship and with other vessels due to join the company's fleet, Cunard announced last year that the QE2 would be sold to the Dubai World company for around £50 million.

The QE2 will reach Dubai on November 26 and will then be handed over to the Nakheel company, which is part of Dubai World and the creators of the Palm Jumeirah, the largest man-made island in the world.

Over the next few months the ship will undergo extensive refurbishment before taking up a permanent docking on a specially-constructed berth on the Palm Jumeirah.

The new-look vessel will have a heritage museum displaying artefacts from the ship and from maritime history.

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