The story of Prince Philip of Greece and Princess Elizabeth sprang out of a summer encounter at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in the year of 1939. Both of them were distant cousins, had been at the same gatherings on a number of occasions.
When Philip was 13 and the Princess was eight, they both attended the 1934 wedding of Philip’s cousin Princess Marina. They were also both guests at the coronation of George VI in 1937.
However, it was at Dartmouth, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the naval college with their two daughters, that the pair had their first publicized meeting in July 1939.
Philip was 18 when introduced to 13-year-old Elizabeth. At the house of the Captain of the College, later Admiral Sir Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton.
Prince Philip was Handsome, blond-haired, athletic. Philip caught Lilibet’s eye as he entertained her by jumping over tennis nets. Marion Crawford, Elizabeth’s governess, recalled: “I thought he showed off a good deal.”
Philip also joined the Princesses on the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert for lunch, doing the same the next day, and Elizabeth was seemingly smitten.
In an attempt to prevent him from being recognized and stop any gossip about their relationship. She later replaced the photograph, which showed a clean-shaven Philip, with one of him sporting a large beard.
It has been suggested that they became unofficially engaged in the summer of 1946; While they were staying at Balmoral. The official announcement was delayed until Princess Elizabeth reached the age of 21. After returning from a royal tour of South Africa.
On July 10, 1947, it was officially announced by Buckingham Palace that he was to marry Elizabeth.
Philip had applied for British nationality. In February 1947 he got a naturalized British subject. He renounced his Greek Royal title and adopting the surname of Mountbatten; thus he became known as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.
The style of His Royal Highness was authorized shortly before his marriage on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey and he was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, and made a Knight of the Garter.
He was accorded by the Queen the style and title of a Prince of the United Kingdom in February 1957. From early in her adolescence, she took a romantic interest in one man and there is no evidence that she ever seriously considered marrying anybody else. Indeed, King George VI’s official biographer Sir John Wheeler-Bennett confirmed that she fell for Philip at once on that pivotal weekend in Dartmouth, 1939.
I am a freelance writer studied Biochemistry at the University of Agriculture Peshawar in the faculty of Nutrition sciences.