Prince Philip: A Life in Pictures

Philip (who was originally known as Philip, prince of Greece and Denmark) was born in Greece in 1921 to Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Some 18 months into his life, political turmoil caused his uncle (King Constantine I of Greece) to abdicate the Greek throne. King George V of Great Britain (another of his royal uncles) helped Philip and his family to escape to Great Britain. After becoming a British subject, Philip renounced his title to the Greek and Danish thrones and adopted the surname Mountbatten, which was the surname of his maternal grandfather, British Admiral Louis Alexander Mountbatten. Reared chiefly in Great Britain, Philip was educated at Gordonstoun School, near Elgin, Moray, Scotland, and at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Devon, England.

At age 17 he joined the Royal Navy and served aboard various British warships in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian and Pacific oceans during World War II. Philip remained on active duty until July 1951, and he was promoted to the rank of commander in 1952.

After a four-month engagement, Philip married Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Britain’s King George VI (and thus the heir apparent to the throne), in Westminster Abbey in November 1947. With their marriage, Philip was given the titles duke of Edinburgh, earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich.

Together, Philip and Elizabeth had four children: Charles (born in 1948) and Ann (born in 1950), who are pictured in this photo, and Andrew (born in 1960) and Edward (born in 1964).

King George VI’s final years were characterized by poor health, and on February 6, 1952, he died from complications related to lung cancer. Elizabeth and Philip were traveling in Kenya as part of a tour of the Commonwealth when they heard the news. According to the rules of succession, Elizabeth ascended the throne immediately upon her father’s passing. However, her formal coronation was not held until June 2, 1953, and was attended by ministers and delegates from the British Commonwealth and the international community as well as by representatives of Britain’s various public interests.

Beginning in November 1953, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II made a six-month round-the-world tour of the British Commonwealth, which included the first visit to Australia and New Zealand by a reigning British monarch. The tour, which logged more than 43,500 miles (70,000 km), was designed to introduce the new queen to the countries in the Commonwealth. In this photo Philip waves goodbye as he and Elizabeth, accompanied by John Cecil Clunies-Ross, return to their ship from Home Island, Cocos Islands, in April 1954.

During the early years of Elizabeth’s reign, Philip was the subject of slights from various political forces within the government and the British establishment. This was partly a result of the uncertainty surrounding the style of the family name Philip and Elizabeth II were creating. The pair wanted a unique name that would distinguish their direct descendants from the rest of the royal family while also retaining the Windsor name, the name of the royal house. They chose Mountbatten-Windsor for female descendants and for male descendants who held no royal titles. Slights also stemmed from the fact that Philip had not been granted the title of king during Elizabeth’s accession. To remedy this situation, Elizabeth pronounced that Philip took “Place, Pre-eminence, and Precedence next to Her Majesty,” meaning that their son, Prince Charles, would not outrank Philip during her reign and that Philip, not Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret, would serve as regent should Charles ascend the throne before he turned 18 years old. In this photograph, Elizabeth reads a speech from the throne at the state opening of Parliament in 1958, the first year the event was televised. Prince Philip appears seated directly on her left side.

While much of Philip’s time was spent fulfilling the duties of his station, he also engaged in a variety of philanthropic endeavors. One of his most notable achievements was serving as president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from 1981 to 1996. In addition, his international award program called the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (which he founded in 1956 and reached more than 140 countries) helps youth engage in community service, leadership development, and physical fitness activities. Here is Prince Philip as he looked in a portrait taken in 1962.

According to some sources, Prince Philip made an average of 342 public appearances per year from 1952 to 2017. In most of his appearances, he accompanied Queen Elizabeth. However, he made more than 22,000 without her to give speeches to support various facets of the British Commonwealth, including nearly 800 charities that he became affiliated with over the years. In this photo, Prince Philip dances with U.S. First Lady Betty Ford in celebration of the American bicentennial in July 1976. The state visit to the United States took place just months before the occasion of Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, which marked the 25th anniversary of her reign.

In 2017 Philip announced that he would be retiring from public life. His last solo public engagement took place at Buckingham Palace on August 2, 2017, where he inspected an honor guard of Royal Marines, who were assembled as part of the 1664 Global Challenge, an effort highlighting the fund-raising efforts of the Royal Marines Charity.