NOTABLE SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 3 (Supplement)

NOTABLE SERVICE

DUKE’S EVENTFUL LIFE

Present At Matapan And At Tokyo Surrender

[By

V. R. KIMMETTI

The eventful life of Philip Duke of FHinb u .l LONDON, May 23. its destiny strangely linked with our country from his earnest

Coast, on June to, 1021, the son of Mn”e Hole of GreS.’"

Before he was a year old, his father was arrested during the revolution which ollowed the Greek campargn in Turkey. Only through British intervention was the family allowed to leave Greece for sanctuary in England. '

Prince Philip of Greece, as he then was grew up at boarding schools, first at Cheam, then at Gordonstoun, in austere surroundings a few miles from Elgin, on the Moray Firth.

Here his first record was good. He left as head boy to enter Dartmouth by common entry in the fateful year of 1939. At Dartmouth he won the King’s Dirk, a signal honour; also another prize, awarded to the best cadet of the term.

By the time he was 19 he was at war. Though not yet a British subject, he carried the King’s commission, the first member of the Greek Royal House to join the Royal Navy.

Now Lieutenant Mountbatten, he saw plenty of active service from the time he was posted to H.M.S. Ramillies. In H.M.S. Valiant he was at the amazing night battle of Cape Matapan, and was mentioned in dispatches. In H.M.S. Whelp he saw the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay, just six years after Hitler had marched into Poland.

Back in England, he was transferred to a shore establishment. Then, first in •

the foreign press, later in the Fleet Street gossip columns, his name was coupled with that of the Princess Elizabeth.

There was the usual rumour and denial; but on July 9, 1947, the official announcement of the engagement was made. She was just 21; he was 26. Ancient Danish Ancestry Elizabeth and Philip are both great-great-grand children of Queen Victoria and also of King Christian IX of Denmark. For centuries before they went to Greece, his ancestors ruled in Denmark and, the ancient and royal line has already provided three Consorts for England’s monarchs; for James I, for Queen Anne and, of course, Edward VII.

Prince Philip had been baptised into the Greek Orthodox Church, and in October, 1947, at a private service at Lambeth, he was received into membership of the Anglican Church.

The Royal couple were married in state at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. On the day before the wedding, Prince Philip was admitted into the Royal Family. He was made Knight Companion of the Garter and, using his Royal prerogative, the King styled the new knight “His Royal Highness.” He would in future be known as His Royal Highness, Philip Mountbatten, Baron Greenwich, Earl Merioneth and Duke of Edinburgh.

There followed tours of duty, mingled with public engagements. After the birth of the two children, there was much speculation as to the future of the Duke. Would he be away from home, enduring those prolonged absences which service entailed, or would he take a post at the Admiralty?

Destiny supplied the answer. The' illness of King George made it necessary for the young couple to undertake the Canadian tour, and the Duke was called upon to step into a rdle hardly less important than that of the King himself. First Gentleman of the Realm Soon it was realised that the Royal pair would have to carry out the projected Australian and New Zealand tour as well. They arrived in Nairobi on the first stage of their journey, to spend a few quist days before going on to Ceylon. On the night of February 5, 1952, the Princess and the Duke kept vigil to watch

the wild animals come down to a water hole to drink.

There, away from the cares of State nearly 5000 miles from her capital city’ Elizabeth became Queen of England The second Elizabethan Age had begun.

From the unique position in which he now stands, in what light will “The First Gentleman of England” emerge? Only history will tell. In the report which he took away from Gordonstoun, it was said: Prince Philip is a born leader, but he will need the exacting demands of a great service to do justice to himself.” He has been called to that great service.