The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip is the husband and consort of Elizabeth II, the Queen and ruling monarch of the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth realms. Philip is a Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg House member, born into the Royal families of Greece and Denmark. At the age of 18, in 1939, Philip started a career in the British Royal Navy and served with the Pacific and Mediterranean fleets during World War II. Upon becoming the Queen’s husband, Philip was required to abandon his Danish and Greek Royal titles and become a naturalized British citizen. He also adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname, Mountbatten.
Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was conferred with the royal titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich upon his marriage to Queen Elizabeth and retired from active military service in 1952 after reaching the rank of commander. In 1957, he was formally named a British Prince. Philip played an instrumental role in developing the carriage driving equestrian event. He serves as a patron member and President of more than 780 organisations and also chairs the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. Philip remains the longest-serving consort in the history of British monarchy as well as British royal family’s oldest male member. On 2 August 2017, Philip announced his retirement from Royal duties, at 96 years of age. He completed more than 22,200 solo engagements since Elizabeth’s accent to the throne in 1952.
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Early Life and Education
Philip was born as the Prince of Greece and Denmark on 10 June 1922 in Mon Repos, Corfu island, Greece and the fifth child and only son of Princess Alice of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. His has four elder sisters named Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie, and Sophie and was raised as a Greek Orthodox. His family was exiled from the country, when he was just an infant. The family then settled in Siant-Cloud, Paris, France.
Philip first attended an American school run by Donald MacJannet in Paris. At the age of 6, in 1928, he was sent to live in Kensington Palace, United Kingdom with Victoria Mountbatten, his maternal grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, and later at Lynden Manor Bray, Berkshire with the 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, George Mountbatten, his uncle. He attended Germany’s Schule Schloss Salem and later enrolled in Gordonstoun School in Scotland. In 1940, Philip graduated from the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and enrolled into the Royal Navy.
Prince Philip – Young Pictures
Career Rise
Philip served for the British forces during the Second World War. In 1940, he was commissioned to the post of a midshipman and spent four months aboard the battleship HMS Ramillies and had shorter postings aboard HMS Kent and HMS Shropshire. In October 1940, after Italy’s invasion of Greece, Philip was transferred in the Mediterranean fleet aboard HMS Valiant. He was promoted to the position of sub-lieutenant and was later appointed to HMS Wallace that invaded Sicily. He progressed to the rank of the first lieutenant of HMS Wallace in October 1942. Philip was conferred with the Order of the Garter, in 1947 and received 17 different decorations and appointments by the Commonwealth. He was soon made the Coronation Commission Chairman. He went on to earn several other military titles in 1952 and 1953.
As part of his Royal duties, Philip along with Elizabeth went on a tour of the Commonwealth for a period of six months in 1953-54. He instituted the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’s award’ in 1956 with the help of his friend Kurt Hahn, a German educator that aimed at giving young people a sense of responsibility toward their communities and themselves. He toured across the globe on HMY Britannia and also opened the Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia, 1956. He was formally conferred with the title of ‘Prince of United Kingdom’ in February 1957 and in the October of the same year, took an “oath of Allegiance” in front of the Queen at Rideau Hall, her Canadian residence. Since becoming a member of the Royal family in 1952, Philip became a patron member and president of more than 780 organisations and completed as many as 22,219 solo engagements, until he announced his retirement from Royal duties on 2 August 2017.
Personal Life
Philip first met Elizabeth when she was 13 years old and started corresponding via letters. The couple got engaged in July 1947 and were married on 20 November 1947, at Westminster Abbey, after overcoming several obstacles and controversies due to Philip’s family’s past lineage. Philip was Elizabeth’s second cousin once removed, through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousin through Queen Victoria. He renounced his Danish and Greek titles, adopted Anglicanism and was conferred with the title of ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ on the morning of his nuptials.
In 1948, the couple became parents to Prince Charles, their first son. They had a daughter in 1950, who they named Princess Anne. Philip also became father to his sons Prince Andrew and Prince Edward born in 1960 and 1964 respectively.
Net worth
Philip has an estimated net worth of approximately $30 Million.