
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG KT OM GBE AC ONZ QSO GCL PC AdC is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He is the Commonwealth realms' longest-serving consort and the oldest spouse ever of a reigning British monarch.
A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Prince Philip was born in Greece into the Greek and Danish royal families, but his family was exiled from Greece when he was a child. After being educated in France, England, Germany and Scotland, he joined the British Royal Navy at the age of 18 in 1939. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth whom he had first met in 1934. During World War II he served with the Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.
After the war, Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Elizabeth. Prior to the official engagement announcement, he abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and became a naturalised British subject, adopting the surname Mountbatten from his British maternal grandparents. After an official engagement of five months, as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, he married Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. On his marriage, he was granted the style of His Royal Highness and the title of Duke of Edinburgh by the King. Philip left active service, having reached the rank of Commander, when Elizabeth became queen in 1952. The Queen, his wife, made him a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957.