Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was born on June 10, 1921 in Corfu Greece.He was a member of the Danish and Greek royal families as the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg.
Philip’s early life was chaotic. According to a royal family biography, He had four sisters: Cecilie, Sophie, Margarita and Theodora. His sisters married and moved to Germany between 1930 and 1931. Philip attended school in France, England, Germany and Scotland before he entered the Royal Naval College in 1939. The college, at Dartmouth in western England, trains future naval officers.
It was at that time that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, toured the college along with their daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. There, young Elizabeth, who was 13 at the time, grew fond of Philip and they started exchanging letters. They were distant cousins, both being descended from Queen Victorian and, separately, a 19th-century king of Denmark.
Philip and Elizabeth were engaged in 1946, and married the following year in Westminster Abbey. He had to renounce his Greek title from his family in order to marry Elizabeth He assumed the titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.
Princess Elizabeth would become Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, ending Philip’s naval career. Together, they would have four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Princess Edward. Philip took on many roles and tasks after the Queen ascended the throne. They included creating the Duke of Edingburgh Award in 1956.The award, open to people aged 14 to 24 years of age, is considered the “world’s youth achievement award.” Its four elements are “Service, Skills, Physical Recreation and Adventurous Journey.”As Duke of Edinburgh, Philip also served as president or patron to hundreds of organizations including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
In 2009, Philip became Britain’s longest-serving consort to a monarch, having been in the role for nearly 60 years at that point. He has been at the Queen’s side through her many Commonwealth tours and state visits, though he has also travelled on his own. Philip retired from public life in 2017 at age 96.Philip also maintained strong interest in issues related to environmental conservation. He started raising awareness of humanity’s relationship with the environment after a visit to Antarctica and the South Atlantic between 1956 and 1957.
Philip suffered from heart disease and other ailments in recent years,including a bladder infection, and had largely stepped out of the public eye since he announced his retirement from royal duties in 2017.In early March of 2021, the then-99-year-old underwent a successful procedure for a pre-existing heart condition at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the U.K. He spent more than a month in the hospital “resting” and recuperating.
Before his surgery, Philip’s most notable public occurrence since he left royal duties was in 2019, when he was involved in a car accident near Sandringham estate. He was not injured, and not prosecuted after he willingly surrendered his driver’s licence.
In June 2020, just ahead of his 99th birthday, the Queen and Phillip isolated at Windsor Castle during the COVID-19 pandemic.It was in the saame hospital he died early hours of April 9,2021.The Queen indeed will miss him as she often called him her strenght and stay.