FUTURE CONSORT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25346, 20 November 1947, Page 3

FUTURE CONSORT

Lieutenant Mountbatten Popular In Britain NOTABLE NAVAL SERVICE IN WAR Princess Elizabeth’s future consort, 26-yearrold Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, has already found a warm place in the hearts of the people of Britain. There are good reasons for the popularity won by the tall, fair-haired naval officer who was formerly Prince Philip of Greece. Although Graeco-Danish by blood, he is completely English by environment and education, and served his adopted country well in the Second World War.

Lieutenant Mountbatten is a second cousin once removed of his bride, and has known her nearly all his life. He is the only son of the late Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. His mother was Princess Alice, daughter of the first Marquess of Milford Haven, who as Admiral of the Fleet Prince Louis of Battenberg was First Sea Lord of the Admiralty in the early days of the war of 1914. Through Prince Louis’s wife, he is a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. In direct male line he descends from the Glucksburg branch of the great Scandinavian dynasty of Oldenburg, to which belonged his grandfather, who was invited to fill the vacant throne of the Kingdom of the Hellenes as King George I in 1863. The table printed on this page shows the common descent of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Mountbatten from Frederick 11. King of Denmark <153488) and from Queen Victoria of Britain. Lieutenant Mountbatten is ini mediately of the House of SchleswigHolstein -Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Lieutenant Mountbatten was born on June 10. 1921, in the island of Corfu, the place of exile to which his father had retired after his banishment as a result of the revolution that brought about the second abdication of his brother Kling Constantine. In early childhood, however, he was sent to England to be educated under the care of his uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, now Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Governor-General of India; and thus he grew up speaking English as his mother tongue and regarding Britain as his home. His first school was at Cheam, one of the oldest preparatory schools in the country, where he entered at the age of nine. Later he attended the Scottish public school of Gordonstoun, where he continued an education that gave him abundant opportunity to indulge his inherited love of the sea. By 1939, when he was 18, he was head of the school, and passed into the Royal Navy, winning at the Royal Naval College the King’s Dirk and the Eardley-Howard-Crocket prize for the best all-round cadet of his term. In 1940 he was on active service as a midshipman in the battleship Ramillies, with the Mediterranean Fleet; and in January, 1941, he was mentioned in dispatches for his efficient discharge of his duties at the battle of Cape Matapan, where he was in charge of the searchlight control on board H.M.S. Valiant. Promotion to sub-lieutenant fol-

lowed, and soon after his twenty-first birthday he reached his present rank. He had been serving for*-«fc; months in H.M.S. Wallace, and when a vacancy occurred the captain recommended and secured his appointment as first lieutenant of the ship, although he was the .youngest officer in the Navy holding such a responsible position. Later, as executive officer of a destroyer, H.M.S. Whelp, he was present at the surrender bf the Japanese Fleet in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Soon after the end of hostilities Lieutenant Mountbatten was selected for the training service, always a high compliment to the professional ability of a naval officer. In the succession of short-term appointments which he has held with distinction he has gained, at work and play, the admiration 'and not only of his brother officers, but also of the lower deck. British Nationality Under peace conditions Lieutenant Mountbatten would, like his maternal grandfather before him, have become naturalised automatically on receiving his commission. War restrictions, however, compelled him to wait for formal British nationality, which he eventually received, having taking his turn with other service applicants, on March 18 this year. At the same time he relinquished the title of Prince -Philip of Greece and, in assuming an English surname, chose that which had already been rendered illustrious in the history of the Navy and the Empire by the services of nis grandfather and his uncle. Even A hefore his betrothal to Princess Enzabeth was announced, Lieutenant Mountbatten was one of London’s most popular young men, with a presence and manners to delight society hostesses, but with a modesty and friendliness that no social adulation could shake. He has a sense of purpose in life, but he enjoys life. In sport he likes all the conventional upper class British pastimes—hunting, shooting, and fishing. Both he and Princess Elizabeth are theatre lovers, and both their tastes run to comedy and musical shows, and after the theatre both like to go to night clubs for supper and dancing. But although Lieutenant Mountbatten immensely enjoys the ordinary amusements of youth, he has his serious side. Mr Attlee has described him as “a man of sense, devotion to duty, and character.” All that is known of him confirms the belief that he will well and faithfully serve the realm.