As word broke that Buckingham Palace had called an emergency meeting and speculation swirled surrounding the content of that meeting, at least one media organisation was bound to make a gaffe.

On this occasion, that unfortunate organisation was British tabloid The Sun.

Prince Philip, very much alive, at Lord's Cricket Ground in London on Wednesday. Credit:AP

In the rush to be the first media outlet to break any big news story emanating from the meeting, the newspaper prepared a story mourning the death of Prince Philip, himself a celebrated author of the gaffe - the only issue was that no one had said he was dead when someone working at the paper accidentally hit publish.

"Prince Phillip dead at 95, how did the Duke of Edinburgh die, etc etc," the headline screamed.