Philippos Andreou, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from Elizabeth's accession as Queen on 6 February 1952 until his death in 2021, making him the longest-serving royal consort in history.
Philip was born in Greece, into the Greek and Danish royal families; his family was exiled from the country when he was eighteen months old. After being educated in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, he joined the Royal Navy in 1939, when he was 18 years old. In July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter and heir presumptive of King George VI. Philip had first met her in 1934.
During the Second World War, he served with distinction in the British Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.
In the summer of 1946, the King granted Philip permission to marry Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement in July 1947, Philip relinquished his Greek and Danish royal titles and styles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents' surname Mountbatten. He married Elizabeth on 20 November 1947.
The day prior to their wedding, the King granted Philip the style His Royal Highness. On the day of their wedding, he was additionally created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich.
Philip left active military service when Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, having reached the rank of Commander. In 1957, he was created a British prince.
Philip had four children with Elizabeth: Charles III; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar. In 1960, the Queen issued a British Order in Council, which declared that her and Philip's descendants who do not bear royal titles or styles may use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, which has since also been used by titled members.
A sports enthusiast, Philip helped develop the equestrian event of carriage driving. He was a patron, president, or member of over 780 organisations, including the World Wide Fund for Nature, and served as chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, a youth awards programme for people aged 14 to 24.
Philip is the longest-lived male member of the British royal family. He retired from his royal duties on 2 August 2017, aged 96, having completed 22,219 solo engagements and 5,493 speeches from 1952.
Philip died on 9 April 2021 at Windsor Castle, at the age of 99.
Squadron Business
At the end of Gore's Commodoreship deep change was under way. There were several problems to be solved. The old rule of 'Commodore for life' had broken down, since Sir Ralph Gore in his final years had been too ill to do the job. The rules of succession needed revising too. The heir apparent, Lord Camden, although highly capable, was 'not a sailing man' and it was not thought appropriate for the Squadron to have a powerboat Commodore. Constitutional reform seemed advisable. Prince Philip remembers: 'It was quite obvious that we were not going to have another Commodore for life, so the statutes had to be changed. I remember having a long discussion with the Duke of Westminster about it. Eventually I suggested, "What about my becoming Commodore, we'll rewrite the statutes and as soon as that's done I'll retire?" He said, "But you're Admiral already." And I said, "Yes, but a lot of people are Chairman and Chief Executive. Why not? Admiral and Commodore seems perfectly reasonable." He accepted that, and everybody accepted it. Then we sat down and looked at the statutes, which were pretty archaic, and we rewrote them so that the Commodore would rotate. There would be a Vice Commodore who would look after the Club, and two Rear Commodores, one for yachting and the other for finance. When it was decided who would fill all these posts we had to decide how long they were going to last so that they didn't all change at once.
The 40-year-old Prince Philip was elected Commodore by acclamation in 1961, remaining until the new rotating' system of officers and committees was working smoothly in 1968. During this time he introduced three reforms that were to bring new life to the Squadron: a reorganisation of the Flag Officers' duties and terms of tenure, the admission of wives and daughters as Lady Associate Members, and the formation of Cowes Combined Clubs.
These reforms did more than simply open the doors to change. They fixed the doors permanently open.
By replacing Committee Members and Rear Commodores every four years, and the Commodore and Vice Commodore every six, the Squadron gave itself a self-renewing system of governance. The success of this arrangement has been amply demonstrated over half a century.
It has allowed the Squadron to adapt to changing times, share out administrative responsibilities, and draw widely on the Members' range of talents and professional skills.
The admission of Lady Associate Members (LAMs), announced on 10th May 1964, implied much more than at first was evident. It became inevitable, for example, although no one could have predicted it, that full membership for ladies would eventually follow. More immediately, changes in the physical arrangements of the Castle became necessary. Since 1957 ladies had been permitted to sleep in the bedrooms, which led inevitably to thoughts of improving the barracks-like accommodation. In the harsh winter of 1962-3 seven bedrooms were equipped with wash basins. Before then you had to have hot water in a can brought to you in your bedroom. There was a bowl, and you had to decide whether to get out of bed quickly and have hot water, or go slowly and have cold water but spend longer in bed. It was pretty spartan, pretty cold.
In August 1963, after eighteen months of discussion, plans for an extension to the Castle were agreed, costing an estimated £32,500. The building was closed over the winter. When it opened again on 1st May 1964, the work was complete and the new rooms included the Ladies' Dining Room, married quarters for the Steward, two Staff cloakrooms in the basement, offices for the Secretary and Assistant Secretary, a Locker Room for Members, Changing Room for Ladies, the Ladies' Balcony and Bar, two Bathrooms and Lavatories on the first floor. In addition an oil-fired boiler for central heating was installed and domestic services including new central heating in the Members' Dining Room and Morning Room, wash basins in all bedrooms, modernisation of the Pantry, including a servery Bar and refurnishing the old Smoking Room as a Ladies' Drawing Room.
The additional external walls were built from mellowed stone from an old building across the Medina.
The costs had, in fact, amounted to £40,000
The formation of Cowes Combined Clubs, which created a single organising authority for the racing in Cowes Week, was the third great reform introduced while Prince Philip was Commodore. This required the efforts of many, but Prince Philip deserves credit for putting forward the idea. As he recalls it, "The Squadron originally ran four days in Cowes Week. Other Clubs did the other three. The result was that you had a stack of sailing instructions, and every day you had a different one, and you thought, "Have I got the right one?" And it seemed to me the right thing to do was to put them all in one package. I didn't hear anyone else complaining. I complained because I didn't like it, and it seemed very easy to sort out. Thus, with his encouragement, the Cowes Combined Clubs came into existence.
In such ways the old exclusivity and isolation of the Squadron began to dissolve. This was regretted by a few, but recognised as a necessity by the majority. This was not spoken of as a revolution at the time, and Prince Philip himself played down the significance of the changes he introduced: 'It's extraordinary - all these organisations, they take you over. You don't form them. They're like regiments. You get new generations coming in but the regiment stays the same. It is clear in retrospect, however, that this was a thoroughly transforming period in the Squadron's history. The democratic age had begun.
Meanwhile the postwar revival in yachting had accelerated into a full-scale boom. As Commodore, Prince Philip was clear that the Squadron should play a leading role. At a meeting in December 1962, for example, he told Members that the Sail Training Association had launched an appeal for building a sailing ship and this appeal had been made, amongst others, to Yacht Clubs. He felt that a number of other clubs would follow the lead of the Squadron and went on to say that he thought it was a mistake that clubs should subscribe as a club; he suggested it would be better to ask each member of a club to subscribe, say 5/-or 10/-a head. He stated that if Members present agreed to this suggestion, it might give such a lead to other Yacht Clubs; this was unanimously agreed."
Prince Philip himself was a keen yachtsman, cruising with the family in the 60-foot Bloodhound and racing in Cowes Week in Coweslip or Bluebottle with the Royal Yacht Britannia in attendance. His presence in Cowes attracted the press and high society as it had in the 1880s and 1890s, when Edward, Prince of Wales was Commodore.