The global community has been mourning and paying tributes to Prince Philip, husband of British Queen Elizabeth II who died on Friday aged 99.
Truetells Nigeria reports that the Married to the Queen for over 70 years, Prince Phillip who is also known as the Duke of Edinburgh is the longest-serving consort in British history.
His death followed a month-long spell at London’s King Edward VII Hospital where he was taken to on February 16 as “a precautionary measure” for an undisclosed infection.
Prince Philip was later moved to a new hospital in London where doctors performed an operation on him for a pre-existing heart condition.
He was discharged from the hospital on March 16.
Below are 22 things to know about the late Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was first known as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.
He was born into the Greek and Danish royal families in Corfu, Greece, on 10 June 1921.
His parents were Princess Alice and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.
At the time of his birth, he was sixth in line to the Greek throne.
However, his family was exiled from Greece when he was 18 months old after his father was accused of treason and initially sentenced to death over Greek’s Army to loss in a battle against Turkey in 1921.
Princess Alice had sought the help of her British relatives to save her husband, and this led to release of Prince Andrew from detention.
Subsequently, a Royal Navy gunboat, HMS Calypso, evacuated the family from Corfu in December, 1922.
Philip, the couple’s only son, was reportedly carried out to the ship in a makeshift cot made out of an orange box during the evacuation.
The family – that had been stripped of their Greek citizenship – settled in France after travelling on Danish passports issued by the Danish monarch.
Philip received his early education at the MacJannet American School in Paris and later in Germany and the United Kingdom.
He joined the British Royal Navy in 1939.
After meeting her as 13-year-old Princess in 1939, Philip was granted permission by King George VI, to marry Elizabeth.
Before the official engagement announcement in July 1947, Philip abandoned his Greek and Danish titles and styles and became a naturalised British subject.
He also adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname, Mountbatten.
He renounced his Greek royal title, allowing him to become a British citizen.
Philip was also given the title His Royal Highness and named as the Duke of Edinburgh by the Queen’s father, King George VI, in respect of their marriage.
Philip retired from active naval service in 1951 and was made a British prince in 1957.
Since then, he had been the queen’s consort, where he supported the Queen in her role as the reigning monarch and also invested his time in supporting conservation and engineering organisations.
He was a patron, president, or member of more than 750 organisations.
He retired from public duties in 2017, meaning while he is still a member of the organisations, he no longer attended public engagements.
The couple had four children together – Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex – eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
In a 1999 interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Philip said he believed the world sees him as the “refugee husband” of Queen Elizabeth II.
