The Queen and Prince Philip: a lifetime of love

As children, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece met a couple of times and treated each other with complete indifference.

They were both guests at Elizabeth’s uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent’s wedding to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark in 1934. She was eight and he was 13. And both went to George VI’s coronation three years later.

But in July 1939, fate intervened in the form of an outbreak of mumps and measles at the Royal Naval College. The King, an alumnus of the college, and Queen were visiting with their daughters. Philip, then a penniless 18-year-old cadet and one of the few who remained healthy, was ordered to keep the young princesses entertained. Elizabeth, by now 13, was entranced by his Viking good looks – blond hair and blue eyes – and athletic ability to jump over tennis nets.

Crawfie wrote, “I thought he showed off a good deal,” adding, “She never took her eyes off him the whole time.”

Elizabeth was enthralled. “How good he is! How high he can jump!” she exclaimed. The next day, Philip joined the royal family on their yacht for lunch. As they ate shrimps and banana splits, she stared at him.

Margaret Rhodes, Elizabeth’s cousin, confirmed in her autobiography that “Elizabeth was truly in love from the very beginning”.

Initially, Philip didn’t reciprocate. “Well, we’d met at Dartmouth, and as far as I was concerned, it was a very amusing experience, going on board the yacht and meeting them, and that sort of thing, and that was that,” he told biographer Basil Boothroyd.

But they wrote to each other and Elizabeth kept a picture of Philip in her bedroom. In December 1943, the young naval officer went to Windsor Castle for Christmas and saw the princess perform the lead in Aladdin. The 17-year-old was animated in a way “none of us had ever seen before”, recalled Crawfie. There were dinners, charades, film screenings and a lot of dancing. Philip was starting to fall in love and took to carrying a photo of Elizabeth.

He visited Windsor again on shore leave in July 1944. In his thank-you letter, he wrote of “the simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them.

“I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.”

A test of the couple’s growing devotion was soon to come. In a letter to a friend, Elizabeth wrote, “Then when his uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, were away, he spent various weekends away with us at Windsor. Then he went to the Pacific and Far East for two years.”

Philip returned in 1946, after victory over Japan, a war hero mentioned in dispatches. He began to woo Elizabeth – not that she offered any resistance – eating with her and Margaret in the nursery, and taking them to shows and restaurants. Philip took Elizabeth to see the musical Oklahoma! and gave her a recording of People Will Say We’re in Love. She played it so much that it wore out.

Lady Pamela Hicks, the daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle Louis Mountbatten and the Queen’s third cousin, saw, at her sister Patricia’s wedding, Philip take Elizabeth’s coat. So did members of the British Press – it caused a frenzy of speculation. This was not welcomed by Elizabeth’s parents. Lady Pamela recalled, “The King and Queen were appalled. The thought he might become a son-in-law was most unwelcome. Why wasn’t she marrying some respectable English duke? Yes, he was a Prince of Greece and Denmark. But Greece get rid of their royal families often. And he had no money.”

Courtiers were dismissive. One said Philip was “rough, ill-mannered”, while another said of his ancestry, “It was all bound up in one word: German.” But nobody was taking account of Elizabeth’s determination to marry.

While staying as a house guest at Balmoral, Philip asked Elizabeth and the King for her hand in marriage. George VI had seen how much in love his daughter was and agreed on one condition – that no announcement be made until Elizabeth had turned 21 the next April. The engagement was announced on July 9, 1947.

Before then, Philip made an effort to fit in. He dropped his foreign titles and place in succession to the Greek throne. He adopted a surname, Mountbatten, after his maternal grandparents. He was also confirmed in the Church of England and ensured that his sisters did not come to the ceremonies – they had all married Germans.

Elizabeth and Philip, who had been made Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich the day before, were married on November 20 at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, and the Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett.

Her dress, designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, was the result of Elizabeth saving up all her clothing coupons, topped up by a government gift of coupons, as clothing was rationed. Thousands of coupons sent by well-wishers had to be returned.

More than 2500 wedding presents were sent in, including a writing desk from the New Zealand government.

At the wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace, George VI told guests, “Our daughter is marrying the man she loves,” while Winston Churchill hailed the marriage a “flash of colour on the hard road we have to travel”.

The couple honeymooned at the Mountbattens’ Broadlands estate. Elizabeth wrote to her parents, “We behave as though we had belonged to each other for years. Philip is an angel – he is so kind.”

Fifty years later, in a speech marking their Golden Anniversary, Elizabeth described Philip as “my strength and stay all these years.”

After his death last year, she honoured her husband by frequently wearing jewellery that had special meaning to them. The walking stick she used in her final months had belonged to him.

Now to Love