The war years -- and a princess 

The war years -- and a princess 

He joined the Navy in 1939, the same year he met Elizabeth when she visited the Royal Navy College in Dartmouth with her father, King George VI. The trip had been arranged by Mountbatten.  

One of his cousins, Lady Kennard, described the teenage Prince as " like a sort of young Viking, very blond and strong and very handsome. Oh, I think he was everybody's heartthrob. "  

As a citizen of Greece, Philip was initially deployed as a " neutral foreigner" serving on naval escort and convoy missions. But after Italy invaded Greece in 1940, he was assigned to Valiant, a battleship that would soon see action in the Mediterranean.  

Philip was commended for his operation of searchlights during night battle in 1941 near Cape Matapan, where the British destroyed much of the Italian fleet. He was later awarded the Greek War Cross of Valor.  

After numerous postings and promotions, Philip was in 1944 appointed first lieutenant of HMS Whelp, a destroyer that would be deployed in the Pacific as part of a British fleet in joint operations with the US Navy, including the landings at Iwo Jima during the Pacific conflict. When peace came, Philip remained in the navy, but rekindled a friendship with Elizabeth that blossomed into a public romance.  

Marriage into the British royal family 

In 1947, Philip became a naturalized British subject, renounced his royal titles and changed his name from Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. He took the surname of his uncle and godfather, becoming Philip Mountbatten.  

The couple married in Westminster Abbey in 1947. Shortly afterward, Philip returned to naval duty, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander.  

Newly appointed as the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip had to abandon his naval career for royal duties after the then King, George VI, fell ill. The King died on February 6, 1952, while Philip and Elizabeth were on an official trip to Kenya. It was Philip who broke the news to his wife -- now the Queen.  

The royal couple had two children before Elizabeth acceded to the throne -- Prince Charles in 1948 and Princess Anne in 1950 -- and two after, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. They have eight grandchildren and 10great-grandchildren.  

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