Prince Philip’s other great love: the Royal Navy

The warships of the British Navy gave thelast farewell to the prince Filippo firing blanks dozens of cannon shots. To honor its glorious past in the Royal Navy, also remembered by the new photos posted on the Instagram profile of the royal family.

However the passion for the sea, and for service at sea, the Duke of Edinburgh had written in our destiny. Born on the island of Corfu, the only son of the prince Andrew of Greece and the princess Alice of Battenberg he experienced exile when he was still in infants. And it was an exile that began in the waves. After the military revolt that engulfed King Constantine, the family of the future husband of Elizabeth II managed to escape on a warship British. With the newborn Philip brought to safety in a cradle made from a fruit box.

The prince and his parents were brought in France where they settled in a house loaned to them by their rich aunt, Princess Georgia of Greece and Denmark. From that moment on, the Duke’s childhood was unstable and without a permanent home. Years later, when a reporter from The Independent she asked him what language he spoke at home, he replied: “What do you mean “at home”?“. And in 2001 he said: “That’s just what happened. The family broke up. My mother was sick (when the prince was 10 she ended up in an asylum with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, ed) my sisters were married, my father was in the south of France. I just had to go on. ‘

It went on thanks to the love for the sea. In 1939, at the age of 18, he entered the Royal Navy, graduating the year following the Britannia Royal Naval College of Dartmouth as best cadet of its course. He remained in the Royal Navy and served on several ships fighting against German, Italian and Japanese forces. In 1940 he became ensign.

In March 1941, when he was a headlight control officer on battleship HMS Valiant, he was mentioned in the dispatches for his part in the battle of Matapan against the Italian fleet. His commander said: “Thanks to your attention to the situation, we were able to sink two Italian cruisers with eight-inch guns in five minutes.” Shortly after, he was awarded the Cross of Valor from the Greek War. When he rose through the ranks to become First Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Wallace (aged 21), he was the youngest officer on duty to have executive work on a ship of that size.

Filippo was also there in 1943, when the allies landed in Sicily. He was there too, in 1944, when in Tokyo Bay the surrender of Japan was signed.

Philip married Elizabeth on November 20, 1947. And at first he managed to pursue his career in the British Navy. From 1949 he was stationed in Malta on the destroyer HMS Checkers, in 1950 he was promoted to the rank of commanding lieutenant (corresponding to the Italian corvette captain), in 1952 he was promoted to commander (frigate captain).

After Elizabeth’s coronation and growing institutional commitments, Filippo he had to give up his brilliant career in the Navy. It is said that to make up for the loss he converted his Buckingham Palace apartment into a ship’s cabin. He certainly never left passion for the sea and for boats.

The prince did not know how to manage only military ships. He was also an adept sailor. In the 1960s, Her Majesty and her husband bought theelegant sailing yacht from the Bloodhound regatta, aboard which, during family cruises, the prince Carlo and the princess Anna they learned to navigate.

In June of the 2011, for the 90th birthday of Filippo, the queen had wanted to pay homage to her husband’s brilliant career in the Royal Navy, and his passion for the sea, giving him the highest title in the British Navy: Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy.