BY ERIN VANDERHOOF AND LAUREN MARGIT JONES, VANITY FAIR
For most of his life, Prince Philip walked two paces behind the most powerful woman in the world. Over his nearly 100 years, he built a legacy of charity and support for the military that complemented the work of Queen Elizabeth II, yet the force of his own personality made him a beloved public figure in his own right. As the queen served as the head of state after her coronation in 1953, Philip became the head of the household, responsible for managing and modernizing the royals’ private estates and directing the education of his four children, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.
On Wednesday, April 9, the royal died peacefully at Windsor Castle. As we remember the hardworking royal and devoted father, here are some of the images that tell his story.
FROM PICTURE POST/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES.c. 1929
Philip, second from left, with his schoolmates at the MacJannet American School. On June 10, 1921, Philip was born the youngest child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and his wife, Princess Alice, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. But within a few years, the Greek royal family was ousted and his family was exiled. They eventually moved to Saint-Cloud, a leafy suburb of Paris, where they stayed with a relative and Philip attended a school that was founded for the children of American expats. A few years after this picture was taken he would attend boarding school in Germany, eventually withdrawing after Hitler’s rise to power.
FROM FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES.July 1935
Philip in costume for a high school performance of Macbeth. The prince was first enrolled in boarding school at the age of eight, when his mother was hospitalized after a nervous breakdown and his father moved to Monte Carlo. At 13, he arrived in Scotland to attend the Gordonstoun School, a new boarding school that espoused a philosophy of sportsmanship and outdoor activity. “When Philip first came to Gordonstoun his most remarkable trait was his undefeatable spirit,” the school’s headmaster Kurt Hahn later wrote. “His laughter was heard everywhere.”
FROM ULLSTEIN BILD/GETTY IMAGES.c. 1938
Philip (bottom row, third from left) with the Gordonstoun student cricket team, of which he eventually became captain. Though he would be closely identified with polo as an adult, he loved cricket as in his younger years, and supported various cricket charities for much of his adult life. According to his biographer, Ingrid Seward, the Australian cricket legend Don Bradman once said Philip had “perfect technique as a batsman.”
FROM PAUL POPPER/POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES.November 20, 1947
Elizabeth and Philip stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony with family after their Westminster Abbey wedding earlier in the day. Before Philip proposed to Elizabeth in July 1947, he used diamonds from a tiara given to his mother by Tsar Nicholas II to design an extravagant ring. Other diamonds from the set were turned into a bracelet he gave to her as a wedding present.
FROM FISHER/CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY IMAGES.July 27, 1951
Philip leads his then two-year-old son Prince Charles by the hand on the tarmac at London airport. In 1949 the family lived in Malta, where Philip eventually served as a commander in the royal navy; by 1951 they had returned to England as King George VI’s health was in decline.
FROM KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES.August 8, 1951
In a portrait session at Clarence House, the family home in the early 1950s, Elizabeth holds an 11-month-old Princess Anne while Philip holds Charles. In their early years, Philip would play sports and camp with his two children on the Balmoral grounds. He also recognized early that Anne had a particular skill as an equestrian.
© HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES.August 5, 1951
Philip waterskis in Marmarice, Turkey, during a summer cruise on the HMS Magpie, the frigate he commanded while in the navy. While the family lived in Malta, Philip took up waterskiing and spearfishing.
BY FRANK ROYAL/NFB/GETTY IMAGES.October 11, 1951
Philip square dances at a hoedown in Ottawa, Canada. In the fall of 1951, he and Elizabeth went on a five-week visit to North America, which included a meeting with President Truman. According to The New York Times, the night in Ottawa featured a buffet supper and an eight-piece band that played folk tunes including “Cattle in the Crop” and “Farmer’s Jamboree.”
FROM CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY IMAGES.June 2, 1952
Philip receives a cup after winning a polo match in Amberly. His biographer Philip Eade noted that at first the prince was loath to play what he regarded as “a snob sport,” and once commented that he did not want to “ponce around on a horse.” Eventually he came around to the sport and it became one of his main passions.
FROM KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES.June 7, 1957
Philip and his mother, Princess Alice, at the wedding of his niece Princess Margarita of Baden to Prince Tomislav, an exiled European royal. Alice, renowned for her heroism during World War II, lived in Buckingham Palace with Philip and the queen for two years before her death in 1969.
FROM KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES.June 2, 1953
Elizabeth and Philip wave to the crowds assembled at Buckingham Palace after the queen’s coronation ceremony. Philip served as a patron of the famous 1953 Mount Everest expedition, and on the morning of the coronation, he received word that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had summited the mountain. Eileen Parker, then wife of Philip’s close friend and courtier Michael Parker, later quipped that he might have preferred to follow that news instead. “My husband and Prince Philip were more interested in watching that than going to the ceremony,” she wrote in 1982.
FROM PNA ROTA/GETTY IMAGES.May 4, 1953
Philip disembarks from a plane at White Waltham, a Royal Air Force base in Berkshire. Though he had been interested in joining the air force instead of the navy in the 1930s, Philip only began training for his pilot’s license on November 12, 1952. Despite opposition from Winston Churchill, he continued to train and was awarded his wings in May 1953. Before his last outing as a pilot in 1997, he spent about 5,986 hours in the air.
FROM KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES.June 5, 1956
The queen and Philip talk during a break in a polo match with Anne and Charles in Windsor. After the queen’s coronation, the family began spending weekends at Windsor Castle, and the queen made Philip the estate manager of Windsor Great Park, the 5,000-acre hunting grounds near the castle.
FROM KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES.September 9, 1960
Philip, the queen, Anne, Charles, and Prince Andrew sit on a blanket outside of Balmoral Castle. Philip first visited the royal family at Balmoral to hunt deer and grouse in the summer of 1946, and he later told biographer Basil Boothroyd that he and the queen began to discuss marriage on this trip. In 1955, his one-time valet John Dean wrote that kilts were embarrassing to Philip at first, but he eventually became fond of wearing them while he was at the Scottish estate.
BY GEORGE SILK/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES.August 1, 1962
Philip sits at the helm of the Bloodhound, his 63-foot racing yacht, during the Cowes Regatta. The prince would often bring the yacht on his summer trips to Scotland, where he taught Anne and Charles how to sail.
FROM POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES.May 5, 1962
Philip greets players for the Burnley soccer club before a match. Though it’s not clear if Philip personally rooted for any Premier League teams, Charles is a longtime Burnley fan, and the queen is said to be an Arsenal supporter.
BY NORMAN POTTER/DAILY EXPRESS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES.August 7, 1967
Prince Philip practices bicycle polo near Windsor Castle. According to the Chicago Tribune, it was not the day’s main event; he later scored three goals in a regular polo match.
FROM BETTMANN.March 23, 1964
Philip meets the Beatles at an awards ceremony in London. At a foreign correspondents’ lunch a month before this meeting, Philip was asked if he thought the band was helpful or harmful to Britain. “Entirely helpful,” he answered. “I would much rather people make any noise they like, singing and dancing. What I object to is people fighting and stealing. It seems to me that these blokes are helping people to enjoy themselves.”
BY LYNN PELHAM/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES.February 28, 1966
On a royal visit to Nassau, the queen and Philip wave at onlookers from a convertible. In 1966, the couple sailed upon the royal yacht Britannia for a five-week tour of the Caribbean, which Philip followed with a solo trip to Miami and Chicago.
FROM ROLLS PRESS/POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES.1969
Philip paints in front of an easel during filming for Royal Family, a television documentary that first aired on June 21, 1969. He was a proponent of the documentary before production began because he thought it might help modernize the monarchy by providing a fuller picture beyond the gossip columns. “I think it is quite wrong that there should be a sense of remoteness about majesty,” he said after viewing the film, according to Seward. “If people see, whoever it happens to be, whatever head of state, as individuals, as people, I think it makes it much easier for them to accept the system or to feel part of the system.”
BY BRYAN JOBSON/DAILY MAIL/SHUTTERSTOCK.April 1969
Anne, Andrew, and Philip watch the Badminton Horse Trials from the roof of their Land Rover. The family has a long history with the Jaguar-produced sport utility vehicles. The queen’s father received his first Land Rover in 1948, and she acquired one in the early 1950s to use as a State Review vehicle. “The list of Royals who drive Land Rovers and Range Rovers reads like the line of succession,” Catherine Ostler wrote in the Daily Mail in 2016. Philip continued driving his own Land Rover until he voluntarily gave up his driver’s license after a 2019 accident behind the wheel.
FROM POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES.August 20, 1971
Charles and Philip pose outside of Cranwell, the Royal Air Force College in Lincolnshire, after a ceremony where Charles was awarded his wings. Charles enrolled in a five-month training course after graduating from Cambridge University. He would eventually follow in his father’s footsteps and enroll at Dartmouth, the Royal Navy training course, before spending seven years in the military.
BY MONTI SPRY/CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY IMAGES.April 26, 1973
Philip speaks to Mother Teresa in London after presenting her with the first Templeton Foundation Award for Progress in Religion. “The extent to which humanity has been converted from groups of superior animals to peaceful and compassionate communities is largely due to the vision and to the example of the great religious leaders,” he said in his address at the ceremony. “The sheer goodness which shines through Mother Teresa’s life and work can only inspire humility, wonder, and admiration. What more is there to be said when the deeds speak so loudly for themselves?”
FROM KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES.September 1972
The queen and Philip visit a farm on the Balmoral estate in a photo taken by Patrick Lichfield, a fashion photographer and cousin of the queen, to celebrate the couple’s silver wedding anniversary. “When they are up at Balmoral, they act as normal people—to a point,” the prince’s friend Jane Roberts told the Telegraph in 2011. “Lunch is always outdoors, and they are outside every day going on expeditions.”
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.May 25, 1978
Philip wears his military uniform in Bremerhaven, the last stop on a five-day tour of Germany. Both Philip and the queen have German heritage, and when he was a teenager, all four of his sisters married German noblemen.
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.July 29, 1981
Philip stands with Charles and Princess Diana on the Buckingham Palace balcony after their wedding. By the 1990s, Diana was no longer fond of Philip, due in part to his propensity for writing critical letters, according to Seward. “He might be entertaining as a dinner guest,” Diana reportedly said, “but as a father-in-law he was far too judgemental.”
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.May 12, 1984
Philip attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show with Anne’s two children, Peter and Zara. Due in part to Anne’s busy career as an equestrian, the queen and Philip spent plenty of time with their oldest grandchildren. “Zara and Peter coped very well with their parents’ absence, largely because of strong back-up from the Queen and Prince Philip, who were very much hands-on grandparents and still are,” an insider told the Sunday Times in 2000. “The children had very happy times at Sandringham.”
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.July 22, 1984
Philip with Prince Edward, at a charity event in the Ascot racecourse. Philip had an especially close relationship with his youngest son, who participated in the serious outdoors program founded by his father. “When Edward talks, his father listens closely and radiates an almost tangible fondness,” the Telegraph reported in 2005. “The body language is that of any other father-son relationship.”
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.February 18, 1986
Philip touches an elephant in Chitwan National Park during a royal visit to Nepal. The prince, then the president of the World Wildlife Fund, made a solo outing to the conservation park while the queen stayed behind at a lodge in Kathmandu. Though he declined to shoot any elephants with a tranquilizer dart, according to the Times, he watched the park’s game wardens interact with rhinos, gharials, and crocodiles.
FROM DAILY MIRROR/MIRRORPIX/GETTY IMAGES.June 4, 1986
Philip and Diana talk during the Epsom Derby. As early as 1955, Philip didn’t seem to enjoy horse racing quite as much as his wife and the Queen Mother, who were both obsessives. “Princess Elizabeth’s excitement during the racing was infectious, but I noticed that the duke took it all quite calmly,” his former valet Dean said at the time. “Normally they like to do everything together, but the duke was not fond of spectator sports.” In 2017, Seward said that at races he was occasionally seen reading a book in the royal box.
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.October 14, 1986
The queen and Philip stop during a visit to the Great Wall of China. During a five-city tour of the country, the prince made global headlines for making a racist comment while in conversation with a group of Scottish students studying abroad. The next day, a reporter asked Philip if he thought he was “too blunt” with the students. "No,” he responded. “I thought the Edinburgh students were rather tactless.” In 1992, his biographer John Parker cited the controversy as an example of Philip’s “own sheer rudeness to people who least expect it; and not just to individuals but to whole communities,” adding that he also seemed skeptical on issues of race relations.
BY GEORGES DE KEERLE/GETTY IMAGES.May 16, 1987
Philip rides in a carriage during the Royal Windsor Horse Show. After arthritis forced Philip to retire from polo playing at the age of 50, he got involved with carriage driving competitions, eventually representing Great Britain in six world championships and writing three books on the subject. “You may well wonder why I have continued to compete for quite so many years,” he wrote in Thirty Years On and Off the Box Seat in 2004. “The simple answer is that I have enjoyed every moment of it, or, more accurately, almost every moment of it. It gets me into the fresh air and it keeps me reasonably fit.”
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.May 3, 1996
Philip talks to onlookers during a visit to Hereford. He and the queen were in town to fete a new library meant to display the town’s medieval Mappa Mundi, which had been saved due to a donation from John Paul Getty Jr. According to the Sunday Mirror, Philip was disappointed that no beef from the region’s famous cattle was served at the day’s luncheon.
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.November 6, 2004
Philip, the queen, and their grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry attend a wedding of family friends at the Chester Cathedral. When Diana died, William and Harry were visiting the Balmoral estate, and spent about a week fishing and duck flighting with him before returning to London for her funeral. “The princes both loved their grandpa and took no notice of his gruffness and acerbic comments,” Seward wrote. “During that strange surreal week after their mother’s death they were glad of his reassuring presence.”
BY TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES.August 31, 2007
Philip embraces William at a London ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of Diana’s death. In 2012, William spoke about his admiration for his grandfather’s relationship with the queen. “He’s been the most incredible support to her,” William said. “I don’t know how anyone coming from the background he came from—who was going places, hugely promotable, a strong personality—could go from that and then take a sidestep or even a backstep and be the support he has to the Queen.”
BY CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES.May 24, 2011
Philip and the queen stand with Barack and Michelle Obama in the music room of Buckingham Palace on their way to a state banquet. Earlier in the day, Philip led the president on an inspection of the Scotch Guards.
BY BEN STANSALL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES.March 13, 2015
Philip and the queen leave St. Paul’s Cathedral after a memorial service marking the end of Britain’s combat involvement in Afghanistan. When Philip retired from royal duties in 2017, Wood Farm Cottage at Sandringham became his primary residence, but the queen reportedly visited him frequently. In March 2020, he was flown by helicopter to Windsor Castle, where he and the queen spent Britain’s lockdowns together.
BY CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES.June 17, 2017
Philip smiles at Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, during Trooping the Colour. It was his final appearance at the event; later that summer Philip would retire from his public duties as a senior royal.
BY ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES.December 25, 2017
Philip gestures to onlookers as he arrives at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, followed by William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan Markle. In May 2018, he attended their wedding at Windsor Castle, and one year later he was one of the first family members to meet Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
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