Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Who was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh?

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh KG KT OM ONZ GBE AC QSO GCL CC CMM PC PC ADC is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He is the longest-serving and oldest-ever spouse of a reigning British monarch and the oldest-ever male member of the British royal family.

A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Prince Philip was born in Greece into the Greek and Danish royal families, but his family was exiled from Greece when he was a child. After being educated in France, England, Germany, and Scotland, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, at the age of 18. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth whom he had first met in 1934. During World War II he served with the Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.

After the war, Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Elizabeth. Before the official engagement announcement, he abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and became a naturalised British subject, adopting the surname Mountbatten, from his maternal grandparents. After an official engagement of five months, as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, he married Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. Just prior to the marriage, the King granted him the style of His Royal Highness and the title Duke of Edinburgh. Philip left active service, having reached the rank of Commander, when Elizabeth became queen in 1952. The Queen made him a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957.