Since the passing of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, there has been a flood of information about the royal, his many passions and pursuits, his gallant character and his turbulent childhood – one that saw him and his family exiled from their home. Exploring his tumultuous adolescence right up to his peaceful retirement, this post takes a look at Prince Philip’s Home History:
Mon Repos, Corfu
Long before Prince Philip was born, his grandfather, a 17-year-old Danish prince, was chosen to become king of Greece in an attempt to stabilise the country after overthrowing the previous King (a German prince). As such, Philip’s father was a prince of Greece and Denmark, and in succession to the Greek throne. In 1921, Prince Philip, of Greece and Denmark, was born on the dining table of Mon Repos in Greece. The villa was originally built for British Lord High Commissioners, but became a summer residence for the royal family after the coronation of King George I (Philip’s paternal grandfather who named the villa). 18 months after his birth, Philip’s father, Prince Andrew, was arrested by a new military government after a major loss in the Greco-Turkish War, and he was subsequently banished from Greece. The family were rescued by the British ship HMS Calypso, with Prince Philip transported in a fruit box.
Saint-Cloud, Paris
For the next 10 years Philip lived just outside Paris in the area known as Saint-Cloud. Philip’s paternal uncle, Prince George of Greece and Denmark had married the very wealthy Princess Marie Bonaparte, a descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte, and it was in a home she lent to them that they lived for the next ten years. Before marrying Prince George, Princess Marie had lived in the small villa (above), which she loved so much, she would later gradually buy plots of land surrounding the home and transform it into a grander house measuring roughly 35,000m2. While Philip lived in Saint-Cloud he attended MacJannet’s American School; The Elms and lived a somewhat idyllic childhood until his parents separated. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, had suffered terribly during the successive constitutional crises in Greece, which saw her closely monitored by guards before fleeing the country. In her distress she turned to her faith, turning deeply religious and claiming to have been visited by God. Her husband, Prince Andrew, had her treated by numerous psychiatrists specialising in shell shock, who diagnosed her with paranoid schizophrenia after which she was placed into a sanatorium. Prince Andrew then took off to the south of France, eventually settling with his mistress in Monaco.
The numerous homes of Princess George of Greece and Denmark, that once littered Saint Cloud have since been demolished and replaced with a number of brutalist apartment blocks. The only recognition of the Saint-Cloud villa is the street name Rue Marie Bonaparte.
Lynden Manor, Berkshire
Without parents to look after him, Prince Philip was put under the supervision of his maternal grandfather’s wife Victoria, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, widow of Prince Louis of Battenberg. The Battenberg family had changed their name to Mountbatten during World War I due to anti-German sentiment, and it was Philip’s uncle, George Mountbatten, who took the young prince in to live at his home in Berkshire. During his stint at Lynden Manor, Prince Philip attended nearby Cheam School, but he wasn’t to stay too long at the school. Prince Philip’s sisters had all married German princes, including Berthold, Margrave of Baden, whose family owned Schule Schloss Salem, a boarding school in Germany, which Prince Philip was quickly sent off to due to the “advantage of saving school fees”. Prince Philip attended the school for two terms before deciding to follow the school’s founder, Kurt Hahn – a German Jew who decided to flee Nazi Germany and set up a new school in Scotland; Gordonstoun. Prince Philip was one of only a few students who attended the school at its inception, and it was where Prince Philip spent his teen years. During this time his sister and her family died in a plane crash and his uncle and guardian George Mountbatten died of bone marrow cancer. George’s younger brother, Louis Mountbatten, decided to take over Prince Philip’s guardianship.
Clarence House, London
After completing his studies Prince Philip began his training at Dartmouth, the Royal Naval College, graduating the following year as the best on his course. He then served in the Royal Navy and at 21 years of age he was one of the youngest first lieutenants in the Navy. Prince Phillip went on to fight the Nazis in World War II, while his sisters’ husbands fought for the opposing side. Throughout this time the prince had been courting distant cousin (via Queen Victoria) Princess Elizabeth, who he had met during the royal family’s visit to Dartmouth, through letters and occasional visits at Christmas. When he returned to Britain in 1946 he asked the King’s permission to marry his daughter. The following year the engagement was announced after Philip abandoned his royal titles and adopted Mountbatten as his surname, subsequently becoming His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh upon his marriage to Princess Elizabeth. The couple then took up residence at Clarence House, a royal residence within the Palace of Saint James, on London’s The Mall. The property was the location for the birth of the couple’s first daughter Princess Anne. For nearly six years The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Elizabeth resided in the John Nash-designed property, before the death of the king and their move to Buckingham Palace. During this period, the couple were stationed in Malta at Villa Guardamangia for 2 years.
Sandringham Estate, Norfolk
After the death of the King and Princess Elizabeth’s subsequent coronation, The Duke of Edinburgh and his young family would now take over the official royal residences of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, where they lived in an apartment, as well as the family residences of Balmoral Castle and the Sandringham Estate. Each year the family would holiday in Scotland, at Balmoral during the summer months. At the start of each visit, Prince Philip and The Queen would stay at Craigowan Lodge on the estate while the main property was being prepared. Prince Philip oversaw a lot of the daily running of the estate during his lifetime, including introducing a water garden and herbaceous borders to the gardens. The Duke also oversaw the estate of Sandringham, where the family would abscond to each winter for Christmas and New Year. After the Duke retired from public life in 2017, he took up his retirement in Sandringham’s Wood Farm where he became the first person in the UK to grow black truffles.
Find out more about Prince Philip on the Royal Family’s official website where you can also leave condolences or read about the funeral and commemorations. You can also watch a stream of Prince Philip’s funeral on The Royal Family or BBC YouTube Channels. You can view all royal residences by browsing the ‘royalty’ tag.
images: Alinea, Kritzolina, John fielding from creative commons, google maps