The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Lasting love of devoted couple
The Queen and the Duke – who was the longest serving consort in British history – were married for almost seven decades, presenting a model example of enduring love and companionship throughout that time.
As distant cousins, they had met several times during childhood, but it was as teenagers during the summer of 1939 that their romance really began.
That July heralded their first publicised meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited with Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret.
At 18 years old, Prince Philip was a blond-haired and handsome naval cadet, who caught the eye of Lilibet, then 13, by jumping over tennis nets to make her laugh. Apparently, she fell in love with him on the spot.
They began writing letters to one another, with the Duke going on to serve with distinction during the Second World War. As time passed, his friendship with the Princess turned into love.
Their engagement was officially announced in July 1947 – Elizabeth’s father George VI made them wait to announce the formal engagement until she had turned 21 – and they married at Westminster Abbey on November 20 that same year. Later Winston Churchill said the post-war wedding ceremony was “a flash of colour on the hard road we travel”.
Within five years, George VI had died and Princess Elizabeth had become Queen, a change in circumstance that saw the Duke, a successful naval officer, bring his military career to an end to support his wife following her ascension to the throne in 1952.
Since then, they travelled the world together, weathered the deaths of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, seen 14 Prime Ministers take to office and became great-grandparents to nine children including Prince William and Kate’s children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
The success of their relationship was put down to compatibility and contrasting but, importantly, complementary characters. Both were fans of horses, walking
‘Philip is the only man in the world who treats her simply as another human being’ Lord Charteris on the Royal couple’s relationship
their corgis and being outdoors at every opportunity.
But while The Duke was known for his blunt, nononsense approach and acerbic wit, as well as the odd tempestuous outburst, the Queen is far calmer and passive, although apparently she was quite happy to tell him to “shut up” when necessary, and vice versa.
Lord Charteris, the Queen’s former private secretary, once said: “Prince Philip is the only man in the world who treats The Queen simply as another human being.
“He’s the only man who can. Strange as it may seem, I believe she values that.”
On their golden wedding anniversary in 1997, the Queen summed up her husband’s support by saying: “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”