The young Philip
Prince Philip once described himself as a “refugee husband”, and his nomadic childhood undoubtedly left a deep impression, shaping his attitudes and beliefs during a long and eventful life.
When he married Princess Elizabeth in 1947, he was viewed with suspicion by the British establishment and was literally broke. So how did the penniless Prince of Greece, whose family fled their home when he was just 1, end up marrying our future Queen?
Prince Philip was born on, on the Grecian island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. Yet, Greece’s royal family had no Greek blood, having been ‘imported’ from Denmark. In 1922, Philip’s father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark – and younger brother of King Constantine – was tried by a revolutionary council for failing to lead a cavalry charge against the invading Turks, and was banished for life. Philip and his four older sisters were smuggled out by their parents to a waiting British ship, and the family spent seven years in a relative’s house in Paris.
