On the noon of Friday 9th April, it would have been hard to miss the news of the death of Prince Philip, Consort to Queen Elizabeth II, mere moments after the announcement by the Royal Family the BBC had picked up the announcement, and played a screened memorial to him via showing his picture and playing the national anthem in the background, and so begun nonstop coverage on the death and the life of Prince Philip, with all their usual programming across their channels and radio stations suspended.
This was something many of us have never experienced before, and other news media also gave wide coverage of the major event, and their was talk all across the social medias, and the endless condolences from major figures across the celebrity and political world, and we witnessed 99-bongs from Big Ben, flags at half-mast, and the 41-gun salute that took place across the nation, it was all the beginning of what we know to be Operation Forth Bridge, a procedure following the death of Prince Philip.
8-days of mourning begun for the Queen, the Royal Family, and the nation as a whole, for the Queen it is of course most significant, having someone she had been married to for 73-long-years die can be unimaginable to think about for many, as a lot of us are not so fortunate enough to have such a long partnership, but those who have been married life-long can know such a pain, and I can only imagine it is deep and profound, and of course we have heard the stories of death from a broken heart after such has taken place, but the Queen is tough and I can imagine she likely has a number of years left in her yet, despite herself being in her mid-90s.
For many it seemed to come at a bit of a shock, obviously at the age of 99 his death was going to inevitably be sooner than later, but given he had only recently been released from hospital, it is likely many assumed he would live for a bit longer yet, as otherwise they may have kept him in, but as is the case we will not know the full details surrounding it, and it was his longest ever stay in hospital, including the summoning of Prince Charles, his son and heir to the throne, to come and visit him, which to many at the time seemed an ominous sign.
Many would have also seen it is quite a bitter moment as he was only some weeks away from his milestone 100th birthday, which for many traditionally involves a birthday card from the Queen if they ever managed to reach such a grand lucky old age. But 99 is still a grand and lucky age to live to, many do not make it to that age either, it is a very generous age, and it can be easily said that Prince Philip made the absolute most of all the long years he lived, as we shall see within his packed and active life.
His funeral will be taking place this following Saturday, although largely scaled down on attendance due to the coronavirus, but it will be witnessed across television and online by many people who may be eager to see the historical moment, which will mark the end of mourning for the nation and following the funeral the raising of flags back up once again. And so, in this time of reflection let us go over the long and full life of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Prince Philip was born on 10th June 1921 on the island of Corfu in Greece and was known as Prince Philip of Greece as during this time the country was under a monarchy although this would not last for much longer. He was born to Prince Andrew of Greece, who was a son of King George I of the Hellenes, and Princess Alice of Battenburg, who was the first child to Prince Louis of Battenburg, and a sister to Earl Mountbatten of Burma. There were many familial connections to many royal families in Europe due to their long history of inter-marriage between the families.
Prince Philip’s life was soon to be turned up on its head as a revolution in Greece led to the overthrow of the monarchy via a coup and a revolutionary court that was established following this would banish Prince Philip’s father in 1922. Due to the danger they were in, they required a way to leave their country, and this is where their familial connections came in handy, as a second cousin, King George V, sent a British warship to move the family to Italy. One well mentioned part of this journey often brings up how the baby Prince Philip was transported in a makeshift crib made from an orange box.
Along with him came his mother and father, and his older sisters. Prince Philip’s education started in France, but by seven he would be attending a preparatory school in Surrey as he had moved to live with relatives of the Mountbatten family in England. By this point he had very little contact with his mother the Princess Alice who had since been sent to an asylum due to schizophrenia. By 1933 Prince Philip had been sent to Southern Germany to study at Schule Schloss Salem, but this would not last as the man who ran it, Kurt Hahn who was Jewish, would be forced to flee Germany due to the Nazis.
Hahn would found a new school in Scotland called Gordonstoun and Prince Philip would transfer to it. He came to like the school very well and it would be one of the defining moments of Philip’s life. In a time where the presence of war hung close, Prince Philip would head towards a career in the military, first with his sights on the Royal Air Force, but later becoming a cadet of the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, this was due to a tradition of seafaring on his mother’s side of the family.
It was here where he would first meet his future partner and wife Elizabeth, who was 13-years-old at the time and she along with her sister Margaret were there while King George VI and his wife the Queen Elizabeth toured the naval college. It was here that Philip would make a lasting impression on the young Elizabeth, putting him on to the path towards the British Royal Family, although not that he knew where exactly that would lead then.
In January 1940 Philip passed top of his class from the naval college and would get his first taste of military action in the Indian Ocean amidst the ongoing 2nd World War. But perhaps one of his most significant moments was his time aboard the battleship HMS Valiant, taking part in the battle of Cape Matapan in 1941, where he headed charge of the searchlights, giving him an important and decisive role in night action. He would go on to become one of the youngest first lieutenants in the Royal Navy. Philip was stationed at Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered.
Philip also kept in contact with Elizabeth via writing to each other, and he made a number of visits to stay with the Royal Family following invitations. Despite some opposition to the relationship, Philip would ask the King for his blessing to marry his daughter in 1946. This required him to renounce his Greek title and become a British citizen, and a new family name of which he took Mountbatten, which was his mother’s anglicized name.
King George VI gave Philip the title of His Royal Highness the day before the wedding, and on the wedding day, before the saying of any vowels, Philip was made Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. Philip and Elizabeth were married in Westminster Abbey on 20th November 1947, starting 73-years of partnership.
Following marriage Philip continued with his naval career where he was posted in Malta and as such where Elizabeth lived with him during this time period. They would have two children before Elizabeth would become Queen, they were the first son Prince Charles born in 1948, and a daughter Princess Anne born in 1950, their other two children would follow later on during Elizabeth’s reign, Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.
During the height of Philip’s naval career in 1950 he would be given command of a sloop called the HMS Magpie, but this ambitious achievement would be short-lived, Philip took leave in 1951 so he could give more support to Elizabeth as she took on more royal duties from her ailing father, Philip would never return in an active role to the Royal Navy, something fairly unfortunate for him as it was something he very much enjoyed.
Philip and Elizabeth’s first royal tour of the Commonwealth would take place in 1952 in place of the King and Queen, while on this tour they received news of the King’s death while at a game lodge in Kenya, Philip was the first to hear of the news and realize the crushing meaning of it, and he broke the news to Elizabeth, who would now be Queen Elizabeth.
Philip found himself not quite knowing what his position meant or what exactly he should be doing, although Prince Philip would have precedence after the Queen, he would never have any true constitutional position. Some of his first moves involved ways to modernise the monarchy, of which he met much opposition against, he would go on to develop a high-profile social life, and took an interest in industry promotion. Philip was allowed to be an authority figure over his family, although had the blow of not being able to have his children carry his family name Mountbatten, with the Queen choosing Windsor instead, causing him to complain that he was nothing more than a “bloody amoeba.”
His relationship with his eldest son Prince Charles would not be the best, as Philip found it hard to deal with his son not having the same confidence or character strength as he did. The relationship was further strained after Philip had Charles go to Gordonstoun, believing it would help build up his son and define Charles, similar to how it had for himself, but this would not be the case, with Charles coming to hate the school, profoundly miss home, and become the target of bullying.
There were also accusations that Philip had pushed Charles into having a relationship with Diana. It was said that Philip did take an interest into the relationships of his children and worked to try and help understand issues they came up within them. Prince Philip became notably saddened by the ending of relationships among his children. There were accusations that Philip was hostile towards Diana and may have even played a role in her death, all of which has been rejected. Letters were released in 2007 to emphasize the strong relationship between Diana and Philip.
In Philip’s effort to continually find purpose within his position at the Royal Family, he partook in a number of different things and ideas. One such of his ideas led to the creation of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in 1956 which has been a major success, helping millions of young people including those with disabilities to challenge themselves in various outdoor activities in nature, to help the development of teamwork and resourcefulness, in hopes it will inspire them on to an ambitious path. Not only did Philip play an integral role in founding the award, but also continued to play an integral role within its functions and ceremonies, such as meeting many of those who took part in it.
Philip was also passionate about the environment and its wildlife, including even in times when such was not so popular as it is nowadays. He was a big influencer and advocate for the World Wildlife Fund (World Wide Fund for Nature/WWF) and would become its first president. He was committed to the preservation of forests and strongly against overfishing.
Philip also kept himself very active through his life, most prominently via partaking in sporting activities such as sailing, cricket, polo, and carriage driving, something of which he played a role in developing. State visits and activities with the WWF also enabled him to remain active out and about.
Prince Philip would remain as active as he could during his good years, but eventually age would take its toll and Philip stepped back from Royal duties in 2017 after an estimated 22,219 solo engagements.
Something that always amused me about Prince Philip was his direct and sometimes controversial sense of humour, which sometimes generated a degree of media and public attention. But despite such, the gaffes and little jokes continued on throughout his entire life while a part of the royal family, and taking part in such official functions and events. I believe the jokes were that of an old-fashioned sense of humour and that they were never meant in any ill-intent, but merely for harmless laughs.
Thank you for reading this post, if you have any queries please Email me, you can find my Email in the Contacts & Community section. Please also follow The Weekly Rambler on Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest and Facebook which you can access through the buttons at the bottom of this website. You can also use the social media buttons under each blogpost to share with your family, friends and associates. You can also subscribe to Email notifications at the right-side of this website to know whenever a new post goes up (you can easily unsubscribe from this at any time through a button in each Email notification), or alternatively you can use an RSS Feed Reader. Please also join my FB Group The Weekly Ramblers Readers Group where readers can more easily talk with each other and also with me whenever I am on, you can also find it in Community.