Prince Philip

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Born	June 10, 1921 Corfu, Greece
Died	April 9, 2021 (aged 99) Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Spouse	Elizabeth II (m. 1947 - 2021)
Religion	Greek Orthodox Church
Military Service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of Crete Battle of Cape Matapan Allied invasion of Sicily Operation Dragoon Operation Robson Operation Lentil Battle of Okinawa

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (June 10, 1921 - April 9, 2021), born as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, was the husband and royal consort of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. He was born in Greece and was a prince of the Greek royal family. Evacuated to Britain after a revolutionary coup d'état in his homeland, he became a naval cadet and served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, earning a Mention in Despatches for his actions during the Battle of Cape Matapan. In 1947 he renounced his Greek and Danish titles and became a British citizen before marrying Princess Elizabeth, who became queen in 1952 upon the death of her father, King George VI. Just prior to the marriage, he was given the title of Duke of Edinburgh, and thereafter styled as His Royal Highness. In 1957, he was further elevated to the rank of Prince of the United Kingdom.

Prince Philip cultivated a gruff and sometimes tactless persona, and affected to be impatient of court protocol. This lack of political correctness led him to be mocked by some in the liberal media, though others admired his directness and robust humor.

Early Life

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born on June 10, 1921, at the villa of Mon Repos on the island of Corfu in Greece. His father was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, a member of the House of Glücksberg (the royal family of Denmark) and the younger brother of the ruling king of Greece, Constantine I; his mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, member of a branch of the German House of Hesse-Darmstadt and a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Alice's father and younger brothers had, prior to Philip's birth, become naturalized British subjects, serving in the Royal Navy and anglicizing their family name to "Mountbatten" due to anti-German sentiment during World War I, giving the young child some influential British connections. At his birth, Philip (the couple's fifth and final child, and their only son) was sixth in line to succeed to the Greek throne.

At the time of Philip's birth, Greece was embroiled in a war with Turkey that had resulted from nationalist conflicts, and over the next year suffered serious losses to the Turks. In September 1922, a revolution broke out that forced King Constantine I, discredited by the progress of the war, to abdicate, and Prince Andrew, who had been in command of a Greek division, was arrested. A few months later, a revolutionary court banished him from the country for life, and his family was evacuated by ship, with Philip carried on board in a cot made from a fruit box. Philip had little personal connection with the Greek nation after this point; he had only a limited understanding of the Greek language during his life, and said later that he considered himself primarily Danish.

The exiled family settled outside Paris, where Philip lived until 1930, when he was sent to Britain to attend school under the guardianship of his Mountbatten relatives. During this time, he suffered much turbulence among his immediate family. His parents were by now estranged, with Philip moving to Monte Carlo in Monaco and spending most of the rest of his life there, while his mother, Princess Alice, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in an asylum in Switzerland. Meanwhile, in a short span of time, Philip's four older sisters--Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie, and Sophie--were married to German princes and relocated to Germany. Cecilie and her husband, Prince George Donatus of Hesse, were members of the Nazi Party; they and three of their four children were killed in a plane crash in 1937. His other sisters' husbands were Party members as well, and would serve in the German Army during World War II.

Thanks to the influence of his sister Theodora's husband, Berthold, Margrave of Baden, Philip began attending the elite German boarding school Schule Schloss Salem in 1933, spending two terms there before transferring to Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland (a move stemming partly from the increasing anti-Jewish persecution in Germany). During these years, seeing very little of his parents, he was closest to his uncle and guardian, Louis Mountbatten.

Naval Career

Philip completed his studies at Gordonstoun School in early 1939, after which he enrolled at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth to prepare for military service. He was urged to do so by some of his relatives, the imminent outbreak of the Second World War apparently being a major consideration in this. He graduated from the college in 1940, having been recognized as the best of his class of cadets and awarded the King's Dirk; that summer, he was assigned to the battleship HMS Ramillies as a midshipman and spent the next several months on duty in the Indian Ocean. In January 1941, Philip was transferred to the HMS Valiant at Alexandria in Egypt, commanding the ship's searchlight control during the Battle of Cape Matapan off the coast of Greece that March. Recognized for his skill in this action, he was rapidly promoted to sub-lieutenant and then lieutenant, and in October 1942 was assigned to the destroyer HMS Wallace as its first lieutenant. In this capacity, he was on hand during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. In 2003, it was revealed that Philip had prevented an attack on the Wallace by a Luftwaffe bomber, constructing a raft with "smoke floats" and sending it away from the ship to trick the bombers into striking it instead. A veteran of the Wallace who told the story said that "Prince Philip saved our lives that night."

In 1944, Philip joined the HMS Whelp, again as first lieutenant, which joined the British Pacific Fleet and was stationed offshore during the Battle of Okinawa and was in Tokyo Bay during the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. He continued to serve on the ship until its return to Britain in January 1946.

After leaving the Whelp, Philip spent time at the Petty Officers' School in Wiltshire as an instructor, then took a position at the Naval Staff College in Greenwich. In 1949 (after his marriage to Princess Elizabeth), he was appointed first lieutenant of the destroyer HMS Chequers, stationed in Malta, which would be the couple's effective home until Elizabeth's succession to the throne in 1952. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander in 1950 and given command of the frigate HMS Magpie, then promoted again to Commander in 1952. This was the highest rank Philip would reach during his active service.

Death

It was reported that Prince Philip died on the morning of April 9, 2021 at the age of 99, his cause of death is not confirmed, Buckingham Palace saying only that he died peacefully. At his death, Philip was the longest-serving royal consort in British history.