Getting To Know… Monica Galetti
period at Earl Mountbatten’s home in Broadlands in South England, the pair then spent the rest of their honeymoon in Malta where Philip was stationed with the Navy.
It was during this visit that the Queen first fell in love with the island so she was delighted when in 1949, Prince Philip was made First Lieutenant on HMS Chequers. She flew out to join her husband on the island shortly after celebrating Prince Charles’ first birthday, arriving in Malta on her second wedding anniversary.
Prince Charles was soon joined by a baby sister, Anne and during the late 1940s and early 50s the Queen often joined her husband on the island, staying at the beautiful Villa Guardamangia.
These carefree days of early marriage spent on the beautiful island were, in the Queen’s own words, “some of the happiest of my life”.
They were a glamorous couple. Philip was on course to rise to the very top in the Navy while Elizabeth, largely away from the public eye, could enjoy a relatively normal life complete with shopping and visits to the local hair salon.
Weekends and evenings were filled with picnics, sunbathing and dancing. It was an incredibly happy time for them both. Young, successful and in love, they had the world at their feet.
“HE MAKES HER LAUGH WITH THE THINGS HE SAYS AND THE WAY HE LOOKS AT LIFE ”
However, during a trip to Kenya in 1952, the first big test of strength came for the couple. The devastating news came through that the King was dead – it was Prince Philip who broke the terrible news of her father’s death to his wife. At just 25 years old, she was now Queen, and their carefree existence was over.
Immediately things changed for the Queen and Philip – instead of a promising naval career he would be expected to give it up in order to support his wife in her duties as Queen. A move from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace ensued as the palace prepared for the Queen’s Coronation.
It was at this ceremony in 1953 that Prince Philip made the following declaration:
“I Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship.”
It is a promise he has kept for the past 64 years, never faltering in his devotion to the woman by his side, who is both his wife and his Queen.
A constant support over the last seven decades, Philip has been there through good times and bad.
There are countless times
the couple have been captured on camera laughing together – their shared sense of humour, despite their differences, is a constant source of delight to all who know them. In a recent interview, their grandson, Prince William, spoke of their marvellous ability to make each other laugh.
“He makes her laugh because some of the things he says and does, and the way he looks at life, is obviously slightly different than her, so together they’re a great couple.”
Typical of his sense of humour, Prince Philip attributed their years of happy marriage at their Golden Wedding celebrations to one thing in particular:
“I think the main lesson we have learned is that tolerance is the most essential ingredient in any happy marriage… you can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance!”
It’s clear for anyone who has seen them together that the Queen adores her husband just as much as she did when she married him almost 70 years ago. Together they have celebrated the good times and he has been by her side to support her through the bad times, too. During her “annus horriblis”, the couple saw the marriages of three of their four children break apart and their beloved Windsor Castle damaged in a fire, yet, finding strength in each other, they have endured and enjoyed everything that the last 70 years has thrown at them.
On one rare occasion of speaking out about her strength of feeling, she summed up exactly how much having Philip by her side means to her. “He’s 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.” Earlier this year we saw the Duke, now 96, step down from official duties, yet he remains there for the Queen – her closest confidant and advisor yet most importantly, in the words of the Queen’s ex-Private Secretary Lord Charteris, the “only man in the world who treats the Queen simply as another human being”. Together they have brought up four children and seen the arrival of eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren – building a royal legacy which will last for generations to come.