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Town Crier Tony Appleton stands outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London, on July 22, 2013 to announce the birth to Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, of a baby boy/AFP

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It’s a boy for Britain’s William and Kate

British landmarks including the London Eye and BT Tower were lit in red white and blue to celebrate the baby’s birth while cannon fire will ring out across the capital on Tuesday.

Newspapers splashed the arrival over their front pages, with many saying simply: “It’s a boy.”

The arrival of a royal baby and a new generation for the British monarchy had been hotly anticipated ever since the couple married in 2011 after a decade-long romance.

The popular couple have been widely credited with revitalising “The Firm”, as the British royals are known, following decades of scandal and the death of Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997.

The palace said the boy’s name would be revealed later, but he will be known as Prince of Cambridge.

Bookmakers say the favourites are George and James, traditional names for a future monarch.

William, also 31 has been on annual leave and will take two weeks’ paternity leave from his job as a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot.

The birth came later than widely expected, adding to the sense of anticipation – as well as the frustrations of hundreds of members of the international media who waited outside the hospital for three weeks.

Prince Charles said that he and his second wife Camilla were “overjoyed at the arrival of my first grandchild”.

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“It is an incredibly special moment for William and Catherine and we are so thrilled for them on the birth of their baby boy,” the 64-year-old heir to the throne said in a statement.

“Grandparenthood is a unique moment in anyone’s life, as countless kind people have told me in recent months, so I am enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather for the first time and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the baby in the near future.”

The fact that it is a boy averted the need to rush through new succession laws across the 16 Commonwealth realms, which would mean that a royal princess could no longer be overtaken by any future younger brothers.

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