Prince Harry is understood to have left the UK for Canada last night following one of his final official engagements as a working member of the royal family.

He was said to be desperate to be reunited with his eight-month-old son Archie, whom he had not seen for two weeks, and his wife in the country the family plans to make their home.

He was whisked to Heathrow following a morning of bilateral meetings with African leaders at the first UK-Africa Investment Summit in Greenwich, south London.

The prince also had a private, one-to-one meeting with Boris Johnson, understood to have been at the prime minister’s request.

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His departure will be deemed symbolic, just two days after Buckingham Palace announced that it was severing all official ties with the Sussexes as they walk away from public life.

On Sunday evening, the Duke gave an emotional speech at a charity dinner, revealing that he had never wanted to step so wholly away from his public duties but had “no other option”. He told delegates at the event, in aid of Sentebale, the Lesotho charity he co-founded in 2006, many of them thought to be old friends who have known the Duke for decades, that he had hoped to continue serving Queen Elizabeth without public funding, but had been told this was not possible.

The decision had “not been made lightly”, he said, whilst acknowledging they were “taking a leap of faith”.

While one senior aide pointed out that it was well known the Sussexes had not got the deal they wanted, another said some courtiers had nevertheless been “taken by surprise” by some of his comments. “All parties involved in the Sandringham talks signed off on the agreement on Saturday, and we were all under the impression that everyone was happy,” the source said.

Aides insisted the Duke had not snubbed his brother by failing to join him at a Buckingham Palace reception for African leaders last night. The Duchess of Cambridge, the Princess Royal and the Earl and Countess of Wessex were all in attendance.

Meetings undertaken earlier by the Duke of Sussex in Greenwich, which involved audiences with the leaders of Malawi and Mozambique and Morocco, had been scheduled long before the royal crisis unfolded. “All engagements around had been in the diary for months,” a source said. “Harry would have been more than welcome at the evening reception but had other plans.”

The two brothers are said to have healed their rift over the last few days in a series of private “peace talks”, realising that as the Duke of Sussex prepared to move abroad, it was “now or never”.

A report suggested their wives had joined some of the discussions.

It is not known when the Sussexes will return to Britain, although it is believed that the Duke has engagements scheduled during the transition period between now and the spring, when they will formally sever royal ties.

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