Prince Philip

Prince Phillip was born on 10 June 1921 as a Prince of Greece and Denmark. His family was deposed and he lived in France and finally went to boarding school in Gordonstoun in Scotland. Eventually he sent his boys there. When he was 18 he met 13 year old Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth, his third cousin from their descent from Queen Victoria, his second cousin once removed from their descent from King Christian IX of Denmark and fourth cousin once removed from their descent from King George III. They fell in love, but her father King George VI did not want them to get married right away. Before they became engaged he renounced his hereditary royal title and adopted the surname of his uncle Louis Mountbatten.

Grandson of King George of Greece and Queen Olga. George was the brother of King Frederik VIII, Queen Alexandra (consort of King Edward VII), Czarina Maria Fyodorovna, Prinsesse Thyra, and Prins Valdemar. Olga was the niece of Tsar Alexander II. Philip was fifth in line to the Greek throne when his family had to flee Greece in 1922 after the monarchy was overthrown by a military junta.

They were engaged in 1947 and married on November 20th of that year.

As a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he is positioned at 496th in the line of succession to the British Throne.

In 1950 they had a daughter, Anne. They were followed by Andrew and Edward.

After the death of his father in law in 1952 his wife became Queen Elizabeth II and he had to give up the Navy to help her being that he was now a royal consort. He has been active with services and takes on a lot of public engagements for his wife.

Prince Philip gained his RAF wings in 1953, his helicopter wings in 1956 and his private pilot's licence in 1959.

Before they married he was created His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, but was not given the title of Prince until 1957. Almost a year after their wedding they had their first child, a boy, Charles Phillip Arthur George.

Among the other conditions Philip had to accept to in order to marry Elizabeth was that their children would not bear his name. By Letters Patent in 1960, Elizabeth gave her descendants surname Mountbatten-Windsor, except for those with the title "HRH" - which is a title used by all of her children and male-line grandchildren.

Was the first President of World Wildlife Fund - UK (WWF) from its formation in 1961 to 1982.

In June 1968, his wife appointed him to the Order of Merit.

In the late 1970s he became a grandfather when his daughter Anne had two children, a boy called Peter and a girl named Zara.

His eldest son Charles had a son William in 1982 and second son Henry in 1984.

He was awarded the AC (Companion of the Order of Australia) in the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Played by American actor James Cromwell in The Queen (2006).

Briefly hospitalised with a chest infection in April 2008.