Love at first sight is the stereotypical start to any romantic tale. However for the teenage Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip it certainly was the case.
The princess that would one day become queen and the man who would be by her side during her coronation first met in 1939 at Dartmouth Naval college.
Elizabeth, 14, was touring the grounds with her father King George VI when she first laid eyes on the 18-year-old Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.
Writing in her biography of the couple, ‘Elizabeth & Philip’, Tessa Dunlop said that that the young Elizabeth ‘couldn’t take her eyes off’ off the older Philip who had ‘bags of confidence’.
Philip then briefly chaperoned the young royal where they ‘played with toy trains and leapt over a tennis net’, according to Dunlop.
In her bombshell memoir the ‘Little Princesses’, Elizabeth’s governess Marion Crawford – known as Crawfie to the family – claimed that the future monarch was left ‘pink-faced’ after her interactions with Philip.
And while Crawfie was known to sensationalise many of her claims, it would appear that in this instance the young Elizabeth was immediately smitten by Philip.
However, they would then face six years apart when the country was plunged into conflict with the start of World War Two just two months after their meeting. With Philip shipped off to serve in the Royal Navy.
The royal family at Dartmouth Naval College in 1939. During the meeting the young Elizabeth (circled left) couldn’t take her eyes off of Philip (circled right)
The then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip upon their engagement in July 1947. Love at first sight is the stereotypical start to any romantic tale. However for the teenage Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip it certainly was the case
In her bombshell memoir the ‘Little Princesses’, Elizabeth’s governess Marion Crawford – known as Crawfie to the family – claimed that the future monarch was left ‘pink-faced’ after her interactions with Philip
Elizabeth in 1947. Writing in her bombshell memoir the ‘Little Princesses’, Elizabeth’s governess Marion Crawford – known as Crawfie to the family – claimed that the future monarch was left ‘pink-faced’ after her interactions with Philip
Elizabeth still kept in touch with Philip with the two exchanging platonic letters throughout the war.
The pair did meet in person from time to time during the early 1940s.
According to broadcaster Gyles Brandreth in his biography of Queen Elizabeth’s life – titled ‘Elizabeth’ – they were reunited in 1943 when Prince Philip came to stay at Windsor while on leave.
While at the palace, Philip saw Elizabeth play the titular role of Aladdin in a pantomime production of the folktale.
Brandreth wrote that Elizabeth – as a monarch-in-waiting – was a ‘authority figure who held your eye when she was on stage and kept her eye on everything’.
In a 1943 letter after his stay at Windsor, Philip wrote of the ‘simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them.
‘I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.’
The same year, he apologised for the ‘monumental cheek’ of turning up to Buckingham Palace uninvited.
A young Philip and Elizabeth at Dartmouth. Philip then briefly chaperoned the young royal during her visit to the naval college where they ‘played with toy trains and leapt over a tennis net’
Throughout the Second World War Philip and Elizabeth conversed through letters and the Prince also paid a visit to Elizabeth while he was on leave on active service
‘Yet however contrite I feel, there is always a small voice that keeps saying “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”,’ he wrote.
‘Well did I venture, and I gained a wonderful time.’
When Philip began visiting Elizabeth, she would, according to Crawfie, watch through the window to ‘see the tall, lean figure coming past the fountain in the centre of the road outside the Palace, or to see his small sports car turn in at the Palace gates. Usually a deal too fast…’
They continued to converse over letters for the next few years but despite their obvious fondness for each other marriage was not always on the cards.
Brandreth wrote that according to Philip ‘marriage was not on the agenda’ but after he returned to Britain in 1946 their relationship soon blossomed and the couple got secretly engaged later that year.
Elizabeth’s father was so concerned that the couple’s burgeoning romance may be a short-lived teenage infatuation that when Philip asked for her hand in marriage he insisted they wait a year until after Elizabeth’s 21st birthday before making any public announcement.
Upon the announcement of their engagement, royal aides spun the fairytale story of the beautiful 21-year-old heir to the throne and the ruggedly handsome war hero who – as a member of the Greek royal family – had renounced his own princely titles to serve with distinction as a British officer in the Royal Navy.
And following a period of crisis for the Royals – with the abdication crisis that saw Elizabeth’s father become king – Elizabeth and Philip proved that the future of the crown was in safe hands.
The Daily Mail front page from the 10th July 1947 announcing the engagement of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on their wedding day in 1947. By modern standards, the couple’s engagement was short. They were married on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey, just four months after the Princess first showed off her engagement ring
Writing in her biography of the couple, ‘Elizabeth & Philip’, Tessa Dunlop said that that the young Elizabeth ‘couldn’t take her eyes off’ off the older Philip who had ‘bags of confidence’
When the happy couple emerged from Buckingham Palace to wave at cheering well-wishers on the Mall, Elizabeth and Phillip – unsurprisingly – looked every bit like the dutiful public servants they would become in the decades after their marriage
By modern standards, the couple’s engagement was short. After a courtship that spanned eight years and a global conflict, they were married on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey, just four months after the Princess first showed off her engagement ring.
The ring had special symbolic value that speaks volumes about their respective backgrounds.
It was specially made from a platinum band set with diamonds taken from a tiara Alice had worn on her wedding day.
According to Philip’s mother, Princess Alice, Philip was not the same man before and after the announcement.
Dunlop claims that Alice witnessed a ‘rapid transformation in her son’.
Dunlop wrote: ‘Alice witnessed a rapid transformation in her son. Two days earlier she’d help him pack, and then his levels of excitement had been reminiscent of Philip’s “eager tail-wagging days” as a schoolboy, when he moved from pillar to post.
‘Overnight her son made the transition and it was with a note of satisfaction that Alice wrote to her brother Dickie [Lord Mountbatten] in India: “It amused me very much to be waiting with the rest of the family, for Philip to come down grandly with Bertie, Elizabeth and Lillibet”.’
However, Philip’s sudden transformation had been a year in the making after the couple secretly got engaged in 1946 but waited until Elizabeth was 21 to make a formal announcement.
So when the happy couple emerged from Buckingham Palace to wave at cheering well-wishers on the Mall, Elizabeth and Phillip – unsurprisingly – looked every bit like the dutiful public servants they would become in the decades after their marriage.
