EARLY LIFE

The Duke of Edinburgh was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in Corfu on 10 June 1921.

He was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece, who was the younger brother of King Constantine of Greece. His paternal family is of Danish descent, as Prince Andrew was the grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark.

His mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Prince Louis became a naturalised British subject in 1868, joined the Royal Navy and rose to become an Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord in 1914.

During the First World War, Prince Louis changed the family name to Mountbatten and was created Marquess of Milford Haven. Prince Philip adopted the family name of Mountbatten when he became a naturalised British subject and renounced his Royal title in 1947.

Prince Philip had four older sisters: Princess Margarita (1905-81), Princess Theodora (1906-69), Princess Cécile (1911-37), and Princess Sophie (1914-2001).

In the early 1920s Greece was politically unstable and in 1922 the King of Greece, Constantine I, was forced to abdicate the throne. A revolutionary court sentenced Prince Andrew, his younger brother, to death.

King George V ordered that a Royal Navy ship should evacuate the family, and Philip was carried to safety in a cot made from an orange box in December 1922. He was just 18 months old. 

The family settled in Paris, first in a house in the Bois de Boulogne, then in a property in the St-Cloud district.