In 1935, Greece voted to reinstate its monarchy, but Philip’s father Andrew resisted pressure to push his son into the Greek military service. He was instead mentored by an uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and dispatched to a series of boarding schools in England, Germany and Scotland. This meant Philip rarely saw his parents growing up. His mother, Alice, was committed to a psychiatric clinic in 1930. It features, from left, Princess Fedora of Greece, King Michael and his mother Princess Helene, Princess Irene, Princess Marguerite, Prince Philip and Prince Paul. This photo from September 1928 was taken during a family vacation in Mamaia, Romania. Stateless and – by royal standards – poor, Philip’s family spent the next few years traveling between the homes of European relatives, as the continent descended into the political and economic upheaval that ultimately led to World War II. He was taken on board HMS Calypso, the British cruiser given the secret mission to take his family to safety, sleeping in a crib made out of an old fruit box. His family’s experience shaped Philip’s later desire to modernize the British Royalty, in the hope they would seem more relevant to the Queen’s subjects. He was forced into exile just 18 months later, when the Greek monarchy was overthrown by a military revolt. The nephew of Greece’s King Constantine I, the Prince of Greece and Denmark was born in 1921 on the dining room table of a villa on the Greek island of Corfu. Philip’s life was dramatic from the outset. Phillip once jokingly referred to himself as “the world’s most experienced plaque unveiler.” But as a child born into the turmoil of interwar Europe and a naval officer decorated for heroism during World War II, the Duke of Edinburgh was an extraordinary figure in his own right.
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