Prince Philip, the longest serving consort to a British monarch, has passed away aged 99. The Duke of Edinburgh, originally born into the Greek and Danish royal families, completed over 22,000 engagements over the course of his lifetime of service to the United Kingdom.
He is survived by Her Majesty the Queen, as well as his four children, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, and Princess Anne.
According to a statement by Buckingham Palace, Prince Philip passed away at Windsor Castle.
The Queen will now enter a period of mourning during which all state affairs will be suspended.
Per the British Broadcasting Corporation:
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, won widespread respect for his steadfast and constant support of the Queen.
It was a desperately difficult role for anyone, let alone a man who had been used to naval command and who held strong views on a wide range of subjects.
Yet it was that very strength of character that enabled him to discharge his responsibilities so effectively, and provide such wholehearted support to his wife in her role as Queen.
As male consort to a female sovereign, Prince Philip had no constitutional position. But no-one was closer to the monarchy, or of greater importance to the monarch, than he was.
Prince Philip of Greece was born on 10 June 1921 on the island of Corfu. His birth certificate shows the date as 28 May 1921, as Greece had not then adopted the Gregorian calendar.
His father was Prince Andrew of Greece, a younger son of King George I of the Hellenes. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
After a coup d’etat in 1922, his father was banished from Greece by a revolutionary court.
A British warship sent by his second cousin, King George V, took the family to Italy. Baby Philip spent much of the voyage in a crib made from an orange box.
He was the youngest child, the only boy in a family of sisters – and his early childhood was spent in a loving atmosphere.
The prince began his education in France but, at the age of seven, came to live with his Mountbatten relatives in England, where he attended a prep school in Surrey.
By this time his mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and been placed in an asylum. The young prince would have little contact with her.
In 1933, he was sent to Schule Schloss Salem in southern Germany, which was run by educational pioneer Kurt Hahn. But within months, Hahn, who was Jewish, was forced to flee Nazi persecution.
