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Today, he is one of the best-remembered figures in the Royal Family, a commanding presence in the second half of the 20th century and beyond.
Yet if he seemed quintessentially British – an acerbic Naval veteran with a practical cast of mind – Prince Philip was rather more than that, as the name he was given at birth might indicate.
For Philip, the Duke of Edinbrugh, was actually born Prince Philippos Andreou of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderberg-Glücksburg, a Prince of Greece and Denmark, on the Greek Island of Corfu.
He arrived into the world on June 10, 1921 at a house called Mon Repos, delivered it is said, on a dining room table.
![Prince Philip of Greece, later to become the Duke of Edinburgh, pictured as a toddler in July 1922](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/07/16/78700931-12838335-image-m-81_1701967963828.jpg)
Prince Philip of Greece, later to become the Duke of Edinburgh, pictured as a toddler in July 1922
![Prince Philip photographed as a small boy with his mother, Princess Andrew of Greece, formerly Princess Alice of Battenberg](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/07/16/78700945-12838335-image-m-77_1701967929268.jpg)
Prince Philip photographed as a small boy with his mother, Princess Andrew of Greece, formerly Princess Alice of Battenberg
![As a little boy with his father, Prince Andrew of Greece, and his mother, Princess Alice on an unidentified beach around 1925](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/07/16/78700943-12838335-image-a-78_1701967943185.jpg)
As a little boy with his father, Prince Andrew of Greece, and his mother, Princess Alice on an unidentified beach around 1925
![Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark with his wife in a portrait from around 1915](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/07/16/78700917-12838335-image-a-74_1701967869423.jpg)
Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark with his wife in a portrait from around 1915
![Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten pose at Buckingham Palace after announcing their engagement, London, 10th July 1947](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/14/14/78700915-12838335-Princess_Elizabeth_and_Lieutenant_Philip_Mountbatten_pose_at_Buc-a-3_1702564561506.jpg)
Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten pose at Buckingham Palace after announcing their engagement, London, 10th July 1947
Philippos was royal in his own right, descended from Danish royals via Greece.
Europe, though, was convulsed by war and revolution and for all the notional advantages he enjoyed, a peripatetic life soon followed.
Philippos would change his name not once but twice by the time he came to know Princess Elizabeth.
The Greek Philippos went first, replaced by Philp. Then the long Danish/German surname was ditched he adopted the name of his mother, Alice of Battenburg, which itself had been been translated to the English Mountbatten, in keeping with the anti-German mood.
Philip was the only son of Prince Andrew, the younger brother of King Constantine I of Greece.
However, his paternal family was of Danish rather than Mediterranean descent as Prince Andrew was the grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark – hence the much-hyphenated surname.
Philip’s mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg.
And it was through his mother’s side that he was already a member of the British Royal Family – a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria through Victoria and Albert’s daughter, Princess Alice.
Prince Louis – grandfather to Prince Philip – had become a naturalised British subject who joined the Royal Navy in 1868, and rose to become an Admiral of the Fleet and, in 1914, First Sea Lord.
During the First World War, Prince Louis changed the family name to Mountbatten and was created Marquess of Milford Haven.
Prince Philip adopted the name Mountbatten when he became a naturalised British subject and renounced his Greek and Danish Royal title in 1947.
In the early 1920s Greece was politically unstable and in 1922 the King of Greece, Constantine I, was forced to abdicate the throne.
Prince Andrew was court-martialled and imprisoned but was pardoned on condition of perpetual banishment.
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![Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark checks the spikes of his running shoes before taking part in an inter-schools sports day in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1935](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/07/16/78700909-12838335-image-a-83_1701967990191.jpg)
Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark checks the spikes of his running shoes before taking part in an inter-schools sports day in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1935
![Philip Mountbatten, centre, newly titled Duke of Edinburgh, sitting his fellow Royal Navy officers at his bachelor party at the Dorchester Hotel in 1947. Seated to the right of him is his uncle, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/07/16/78700923-12838335-image-a-79_1701967952046.jpg)
Philip Mountbatten, centre, newly titled Duke of Edinburgh, sitting his fellow Royal Navy officers at his bachelor party at the Dorchester Hotel in 1947. Seated to the right of him is his uncle, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
![Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, left, and his nephew Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, attend a National Playing Fields Association dinner at the Mansion House in 1948](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/14/14/78700913-12838335-Louis_Mountbatten_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma_left_and_his_nep-a-1_1702564553870.jpg)
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, left, and his nephew Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, attend a National Playing Fields Association dinner at the Mansion House in 1948
![Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh attends the wedding of Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia to Princess Margarita of Baden at Salem Castle in Bodensee, Germany, accompanied by his mother, Princess Andrew of Greece, formerly Princess Alice of Battenberg](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/14/14/78700911-12838335-Prince_Philip_Duke_of_Edinburgh_attends_the_wedding_of_Prince_To-a-2_1702564554054.jpg)
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh attends the wedding of Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia to Princess Margarita of Baden at Salem Castle in Bodensee, Germany, accompanied by his mother, Princess Andrew of Greece, formerly Princess Alice of Battenberg
King George V ordered that a Royal Navy ship should evacuate the family from Corfu, and Philip was carried to safety in a cot made from an orange box in December 1922. He was just 18 months old.
The family settled in Paris, first in the Bois de Boulogne, then in the St-Cloud district where they lived in a house lent to them by a wealthy aunt.
Keeping his own counsel on such matters – unlike his son, Charles – the Duke of Edinburgh was not for spelling out what effect this turbulence had wrought on his own rather singular cast of mind.
And by the time he finally passed away on April 9, 2021, baby Philippos, the orange box and the dining table in Corfu had largely disappeared into mists of time.