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Philip, duke of Edinburgh, in full Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh, earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, also called Philip Mountbatten, original name Philip, prince of Greece and Denmark, (born June 10, 1921, Corfu, Greece—died April 9, 2021, Windsor Castle, England), husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Philip’s father was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1882–1944), a younger son of King George I of the Hellenes (originally Prince William of Denmark). His mother was Princess Alice (1885–1969), who was the eldest daughter of Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st marquess of Milford Haven, and Princess Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine, granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Prince Philip was brought up in Great Britain after his family was forced to leave Greece post ‘World War I.
He was first admitted to an American school in Paris, but was later sent to the UK to attend ‘Cheam School’ in 1928. He lived there with his maternal grandmother at ‘Kensington Palace.’
In 1933, he was sent to Germany to attend ‘Schule Schloss Salem,’ a boarding school owned by the family members of his brother-in-law, Berthold, Margrave of Baden. After finishing two terms there, he moved to Gordonstoun because of the rise of Nazism in Germany.
In 1939, he left Gordonstoun and joined the ‘Royal Navy’ at the ‘Royal Naval College,’ Dartmouth, from where he graduated the next year as the top cadet in his class.
He served in ‘World War II’ as part of the British forces where he was commissioned as a midshipman in 1940.
On July 16, 1942, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
On November 19, 1947, he was appointed to the highest order of Chivalry, ‘Order of the Garter.’
In 1953, he was made the ‘Admiral of the Fleet,’ ‘Captain General Royal Marines,’ ‘Field Marshal,’ and ‘Marshal of the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom.’
In 1956, he founded the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’ . During these years, he traveled across the globe aboard the newly commissioned ‘HMY Britannia,’ and opened the 1956 ‘Summer Olympics’ in Melbourne. He also visited the Antarctic during this time.
On February 22, 1957, he received the title of ‘Prince of the United Kingdom.’
