Prince Louis of Battenberg

Philip's maternal grandfather died in

the year he was born

We haven't mentioned him yet, for

99 FACTS ABOUT no good reason. There's a lot to know
PRINCE PHILIP about him! He was fascinating, and as
(1921-2021) many legends as facts are written
about him. The full-body dragon
10-19
tattoo seems to be fact; according to
royal historian Hugo Vickers, the
dragon extended from chest to leg &
delighted his grandchildren!
 Uncle George
The 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
He was the first uncle to whom Prince Philip was
sent in the midst of serious family troubles. His
mother was being treated at the Freudian "Bellevue
Sanatorium" in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

It was Lynden Manor, in Berkshire, that Philip put

down for his permanent address when he took his
place among the boys at Cheam boarding school.
Cheam had been Uncle George's prep school, and
Philip would in the future send his own son, Charles,
there.
 Thoroughly English Education

He was not a prince at school. He was just Philip.

Excellent in math & French, Philip was outgoing and athletic, a great swimmer, runner, jumper, and
cricketer. Cricket was to be a lifelong hobby. As Consort to the British Monarch, Philip was so active &
eager a patron of the Lord's Taverners, the players consideed him the Twelfth Man on the team and called
him 'His Royal Twelfthmanship.' (There are eleven players on a cricket team.)
Hard work, The character of Prince Philip was formed at Gordonstoun,
under the eagle eye of Kurt Hahn, whose doctrine emphasized
extreme discipline, self-control, strength, justice, and all the

discipline, virtues of Platonic philosophy. Philip began his indoctrination

at Hahn's first school in Germany, the Salem School; but the
rise of the Nazis forced the Jewish philosopher into exile, and

Stoicism!
Philip eventually joined Salem 2.0 (Gordonstoun) in the
Highlands of Scotland.
 The Royal Navy
A natural home for an exiled whose
grandfather & uncles had been
sailor princes too

Philip joined the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth from May-December 1939. In the summer before
graduation, he achieved two highest honors: the King's Dirk (for best cadet of term) and the prize for
best cadet of the entire college! The same day as the King presented 'the Dirk' to Prince Philip, a 13-
year-old Princess Elizabeth, in attendance, became infatuated with the Sailor Prince!
 World War II
His service was not merely nominal. He served on 7 ships &
in 2 fleets, the Mediterranean and the Pacific, and he was
praised for alertness in dispatches.
 Uncle Dickie
1900-1979

Born a Prince of Battenberg

First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy
Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Last Viceroy of India
Mentor to Prince Philip
"Honorary Grandfather" to Prince Charles
Ubiquitously "Uncle Dickie" to almost everyone else who knew him
including Her Majesty the Queen!
 Princess in Love

There were as many obstacles as encouragements in the

romance between Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth. His uncle Dickie loved the idea,
but her parents, who liked him, still worried that she was too young, he too much older.
Patience & steadiness won the day. When, after her first overseas tour, in South Africa,
she still wished to marry Philip, the King & Queen gave their consent for the two great-
great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria to marry each other.
 Lieutenant Mountbatten
EVERYONE ASSUMES DICKIE'S MY
FATHER ANYWAY.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh (interview with Basil
Boothroyd, about 1970)

Philip's biological father had died from heart failure in 1944. His sisters were
not given the OK to attend the wedding because of their connections to the
Third Reich. However, his mother did attend, and was very distinctive in her
nun's habit.
 The Royal Wedding 1947

Princess Elizabeth married a Royal Navy lieutenant, who had given up his title of
"Prince of Greece and Denmark" to become a Mountbatten & card carrying British
citizen. To reinforce that, the King {his father-in-law, George VI} gave Philip a Scottish
dukedom, Welsh earldom, and the Barony of Greenwich, as in the Greenwich Mean
Time, which is the UK's time zone.