Love match on a pre-war tennis court captured princess’s heart

THE ROMANCE between Prince Philip of Greece and Princess Elizabeth can be traced back to a summer encounter on the tennis courts in 1939.

The future couple, who are distant cousins, had been at the same gatherings on a number of occasions.

When Philip was 13 and the Princess was eight, they both attended the 1934 wedding of Philip’s cousin Princess Marina, later Duchess of Kent, and Elizabeth’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent. They were also both guests at the coronation of George VI in 1937.

But it was at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited with their two daughters, the elder of whom was known fondly as Lilibet, that the pair had their first publicised meeting in July 1939.

King George VI’s official biographer, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, said the Princess fell for Philip at once on that pivotal weekend.

“This was the man with whom Princess Elizabeth had been in love from their first meeting,” he wrote. Philip, who was just 18, was introduced to 13-year-old Elizabeth at the house of the Captain of the College, later Admiral Sir Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton. Two of the other cadets due had contracted mumps, so Philip was the only one allowed to meet them. Handsome, blond-haired, athletic Philip caught Lilibet’s eye as he entertained her by jumping over tennis nets.