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'He wore the trousers so the Queen could wear the Crown': Prince Philip 1921-2021
Prince Philip - the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II - has died aged 99. Here, SBS News looks back at his life, which was one of both service and controversy.
Published 9 April 2021 9:27pm
By SBS News
Source: SBS
Image: Prince Philip and the future queen on their honeymoon in Hampshire. (Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images)
Born on 10 June 1921 on the Greek Island of Corfu, Prince Philip would go on to be Britain's longest-living royal consort, although his famous lack of diplomacy sometimes stole more headlines than his gallantry and decades of service.
The son of Prince Andrew of Denmark and Greece, and Princess Alice, descended from Queen Victoria, his childhood was no fairytale.
The family had to flee to Germany, following the Greek monarchy being overthrown, on a British warship. A one-year-old Prince was carried in a humble fruit box.
He later saw his parents' marriage dissolve; his mother devoted her life to God, and his father to gambling.
Then Prince Philip of Greece, aged one. Source: Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images
An 18-year-old Philip joined the Navy a few months into World War Two, an event he later said was an eye-opener.
"A lot of 15-inch guns going off, which I hadn't heard before, and it made even big ships like that rock about a bit. You suddenly realise life was for real,” he once said.
It was there that he met his future wife, when she was just 13, and she would go on to become Queen Elizabeth II.
They fell in love and corresponded until 1946 when Philip asked to marry her. Buckingham Palace delayed their engagement until she turned 21. He was made Duke of Edinburgh and they married in 1947.
Then Princess Elizabeth (third from left) and Prince Philip (standing, second from right) at the Royal Naval College chapel in Dartmouth in July 1939. Source: Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images
As royal consort, he was forced to renounce his Greek and Danish titles. He became a naturalised British subject, adopting the anglicised last name of Mountbatten.
Within a year, son Charles was born; later, daughter Anne and sons Andrew and Edward.
As Prince Philip's royal duties increased, he gave up his military career. "I think there was a general understanding that it'd be more sensible if I didn't go on with the navy," he said of the decision.
When Elizabeth was crowned in 1953, parliament passed special legislation to keep Windsor as the royal family's name. The Prince complained he felt like nothing more than an amoeba; the only man in the country, he said, not allowed to give his name to his own children.
On their wedding day in 1947. Source: Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images
Together they toured the Commonwealth, attending state occasions - including the opening of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne - and a host of other royal duties.
"When the Queen succeeded we sort of chatted about who would do what and I thought that if I could relieve her of the management of the estates it would save her a lot of time," he said.
In 1957 he was given the title of Prince.
With his children Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Source: AFP/Getty Images
He even found time to visit the Antarctic and founded the global Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme for young people.
"The exposure to new activities, greater self-confidence, wider experience, contacts beyond the narrow circle of home and school, compassion through understanding the misfortune of others," was important, he said.
He was a passionate conservationist, heading the World Wildlife Fund, once saying: "At the basis of it all is this colossal increase in the human population. It's one of the living species of the planet but it's reaching plague proportions".
He allowed cameras to film intimate royal moments long before reality TV, but the press would become far more intrusive in his and other's lives, with paparazzi photographers infamously present at the Paris car crash that killed his former daughter-in-law Princess Diana in 1997.
With the Queen in Canada in 1959. Source: NFB/Getty Images
Prince Philip was praised for supporting his grandsons Prince William and Harry through the trauma but was also accused by billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son Dodi died in the crash, of being involved in a plot to get rid of the former princess - claims that were printed in the media after an inquest in 2008.
Investigations found the driver of the car had been drinking and there was no evidence to support any of the multiple conspiracy theories that surrounded the event.
And then there were the gaffes.
Prince Philip, left, at Princess Diana's funeral in 1997. Source: Getty Images
The Duke of Edinburgh repeatedly sparked outrage, .
He told British students in China in 1986 they should avoid staying too long or they would become "slitty-eyed".
He asked Indigenous performers during a trip to Queensland in 2002 if they still threw spears.
And at a 2009 Palace reception for British Indians he said to businessman Atul Patel, after looking at his name badge, "There's a lot of your family in tonight".
On Australia Day 2015, Prince Philip was controversially given a knighthood by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
In Perth, Western Australia, in 2011. Source: AFP/Getty Images
"I particularly acknowledge Prince Philip for his long life of duty and service," Mr Abbott said at the time. But the so-called 'captain's pick' drew widespread ridicule and Mr Abbott later admitted it was a mistake.
With the support of the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh finally withdrew from public engagements at the age of 96.
One of his best friends was Martin Palmer.
"I think his greatest achievement has been to support the Queen through, probably, one of the most tempestuous periods that the monarchy has ever been through and to, in a sense, to wear the trousers in the family so the Queen could wear the Crown," he said.
As his health deteriorated, Prince Philip was rarely seen, attending only a handful of family events, but he continued to make headlines and
At the state opening of British parliament in 2016. Source: Getty Images
Having witnessed many historic moments, the final chapter in the Duke's long life was defined by another global crisis, with the Royal family not immune to the reach of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Queen and Prince Philip were isolated in Windsor Castle as Britain went into lockdown. Prince Charles echoed the thoughts of many families at the time: "Fortunately, at least you can talk to them on telephones and occasionally do this sort of thing [on Zoom] but it isn't the same is it. You really want to give people a hug."
Throughout his seven decades at the Queen's side, Prince Philip maintained an unshakable commitment to his sense of duty.
At a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award presentation in Scotland in 2017. Source: Getty Images
"He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments. But he has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years and I and his whole family, and this and other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we should ever know," the Queen once said of him.
But he will be remembered in differing ways.
- With agencies
