| Notes |
- Fifth child and only son of Prince Andrea of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice von Battenberg, Philip was born 10 June 1921 on the dining room table of his parents' home, 'Mon Repos', on the island of Corfu in Greece.
His final report from Gordonstoun: 'Prince Philip is a born leader, but will need the exacting demands of a great service to do justice to himself. His best is outstanding; his second best is not good enough.' On 20 November 1947 in London he married the future Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, they have four children. He received the titles of Baron Greenwich, Earl of Merioneth and Duke of Edinburgh.
Four weeks before his wedding Prince Philip crashed his MG into a tree while travelling from Buckingham Palace to a naval college in Corsham. He travelled the rest of the way by thumbing lifts. Shortly after his marriage, Prince Philip spent Christmas at Sandringham. Embarrassed that the kilt he was wearing (which had once belonged to George V) was too short, he greeted King George VI with a curtsey, saying as he did so, 'Don't I look beautiful?' The king roared at him in language only ever tested by the Royal family in private. In 1952 HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, became a Mason as a member of the Grand Lodge of England.
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme started in 1956 with a pilot award scheme for boys, with Prince Philip as chairman. First Gold Awards were made in 1958, when a parallel scheme for girls was piloted, and the charity was established in 1959. A combined scheme for 'Young People' aged fourteen to twenty-one was launched in 1969, and extended to those up to twenty-five in 1980.
Queen Elizabeth created Philip a Prince after ten years of marriage on 22 February 1957 in recognition of his work in the previous decade. On their way to a Royal Film Performance in 1960, Prince Philip, Princess Alexandra and the Duchess of Kent were trapped in a Buckingham Palace lift. Cliff Richard was kept waiting for twenty-five minutes in the cinema foyer.
Prince Philip played the attendant Lord, Donalbain, in a Gordonstoun production. His son, Prince Charles, played Macbeth himself. Edward Seago gave painting lessons to Prince Philip as well as to Prince Charles. Prince Philip's large collection of contemporary cartoons about him are hung in the lavatory at Sandringham; Prince Charles hangs his own in a corridor. Relationship between royal family and press is wrought with problems, but Prince Philip, helpful as always, maintained: 'You must sometimes stretch out your neck, but not actually give them the axe.'
Speaking at the Scottish Womens Institute Display, June 1966: 'You know, British women can't cook. They are very good at decorating food and making it attractive. But they have an inability to cook.' 'I'm one of those stupid bums who never went to university and it hasn't done me any harm,' is one statement ascribed to Prince Philip. Prince Philip is of the opinion that 'Constitutionally, I don't exist.' According to James Callaghan: 'I think Philip is a very fine fellow.' But Clive Jenkins has a different opinion: 'He's the best argument for republicanism since George III.' The last word should be by Michael Parker, an equerry to the prince, 'No one has a kinder heart, or takes more trouble to conceal it.'
In 1973 Arnold McNaughton published his _The Book of Kings_ with a foreword by The Earl Mountbatten of Burma who revealed that Prince Philip is a genealogical enthusiast who has met Arnold McNaughton in Canada.
Recurrent inflammation of the wrist forced Prince Philip to give up playing polo. Since he lacks the Queen's enthusiasm for horseracing, Prince Philip has been known to conceal a transistor radio in his top hat at Ascot so that he can listen to the cricket results.
Leo van de Pas – 2008
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