My Husband and I

by Ingrid Seward

  In keeping with his new standing, Philip went to live at Kensington Palace with his grandmother the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven. He was later joined by his best-man-to-be David Milford Haven. John Dean duly arrived at Kensington Palace at eight every morning to wake Philip and David with cups of tea and to clean their shoes and see to their clothes. Philip was a heavy smoker and kept John busy refilling the cigarette boxes and emptying ashtrays. But out of sheer willpower, which he was still displaying in his nineties, when he gets up at 5am to be ready for an early start, Philip gave up smoking on his wedding day, at the request of his bride to be.

  Despite the valet’s best efforts, it took Philip, who showed little interest in his appearance, some time to accept Savile Row suits and shoes handmade at Lobb of St James’s Street. At the garden party held at Buckingham Palace immediately after the engagement was announced, Philip appeared in a well-worn and shabby naval uniform. A week later, Philip accompanied his fiancée to Edinburgh, where she was to receive the Freedom of the City. As the princess made her acceptance speech, Prince Philip stood dutifully two steps behind, a position he would have to take many thousands of times over the coming years. It was the first time he saw the physical symbol of how his status would always be secondary to his future wife.

  That evening in Edinburgh at a ball held in their honour, the couple danced a complicated eightsome reel. Philip had been wise enough to take some Scottish dancing lessons from Princess Margaret before the trip to Edinburgh and performed well. When the King heard about the evening in Edinburgh, he sent a message to King Paul of Greece saying: ‘Philip is making out well.’

  Prince Philip was still based at Corsham, but whenever he had time off he drove in his MG sports car to London to see Princess Elizabeth. His record time for the 98-mile journey from Corsham to London was one hour and forty minutes. In the autumn of 1947, he had a narrow escape when his car crashed into a tree, leaving him with a twisted knee. It didn’t put him off his love of driving, and he used to take the princess in the MG to Richmond Park. To avoid unwanted attention from the public, she disguised herself with a scarf over her head, while Philip wore his normal prescription dark glasses. A staff car with the ever-present detective would follow discreetly behind.

  Considering the dire straits of the country’s finances after the heavy cost of the war, Parliament took a generous view in voting £50,000 for the refurbishment of Clarence House, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, which was to be the new palatial home for the couple after the wedding. In addition, Philip was granted a £10,000-a-year allowance and Elizabeth’s was fixed at £50,000 a year. Philip took a great interest in every detail of the plans for Clarence House; he even consulted with the staff so that their quarters were efficiently laid out. His greatest delight was his fully equipped miniature cinema in the basement, a wedding present from the Mountbattens.

  After the wedding, the couple lived in Elizabeth’s apartments at Buckingham Palace while the works at Clarence House were completed. General Sir Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning, the husband of the novelist Daphne du Maurier, was appointed as comptroller and treasurer of their joint household. He was a former Guards officer who had been Dickie Mountbatten’s chief of staff.

  Because Prince Philip did not want to spend all his time in the palace, Browning found them a country house to rent at Windlesham Moor in Surrey, where Philip immediately turned the grass tennis court into a cricket pitch. He was always health conscious and somewhat vain about his weight. If he thought he had gained any, he would put on two or three sweaters and run around the grounds until he worked up a sweat. He would come in exhausted and lie down and then have a bath to recover. This amused the princess, who thought he was quite mad, but he has kept his trim figure to this day – another example of his mental discipline.

  Windlesham was also where they could entertain their friends rather less formally than in London, and they had supper parties and cricket parties. In the 50 acres of grounds, there was a miniature golf course with bunkers and undulating greens, and locals would be invited to play. Here, and later at Clarence House, Philip was the man of the house. It was he, rather than Elizabeth, who reviewed the menus and decided on the meals for the day, and the staff deferred to him on domestic matters. Life would be very different at Buckingham Palace after Elizabeth acceded to the throne.

  For the princess, Windlesham was the smallest house she had ever lived in, but the household was still regal. There were six resident domestic staff, plus Elizabeth’s dresser Bobo and Philip’s valet when they were in residence. Even the dogs were given the royal treatment. At four thirty every afternoon, a footman brought in a tray laid with a cloth, silver spoons and forks, a plate each of biscuits and chopped meat and a jug of rich gravy. Elizabeth then gave each dog an individual serving in its own special bowl.

  For the first few months of married life, Philip was given a desk job at the Admiralty, which he did not relish. ‘I was just a dogsbody, shuffling ships around’ was how he described it. Later he was posted to a residential staff course at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. The demanding course was designed to prepare officers for high rank and involved Philip living at Greenwich during the week and returning to the palace at weekends. In addition, Philip had to find time for public duties, including an official visit to Paris with the then pregnant Elizabeth in May 1948.

  Soon after the birth of Prince Charles in November, the King, on the advice of his doctors, cancelled a planned tour of Australia and New Zealand. His poor health meant he had to cut down on his public appearances. The burden of these official functions now fell on Elizabeth and Philip. At the same time, Philip was adding to his workload by taking on the presidency of the National Playing Fields Association, along with other organisations of which he accepted to become patron.

  No matter how busy he was, Philip found time to have some fun at the Thursday Club, which had weekly meetings in a private room at Wheeler’s fish restaurant in Soho. The club had been started by ‘Baron’ Nahum, who was an official photographer at the royal wedding. On an average evening at the Thursday Club there would be ten or fifteen members present. In addition to Philip and Baron, the actors David Niven and James Robertson Justice, Peter Ustinov and John Betjeman, Cecil Beaton, David Milford Haven, Iain MacLeod (later Chancellor of the Exchequer) and some newspaper editors might be present, as well as the occasional roguish figure. Philip would always be accompanied by Mike Parker.

  Princess Elizabeth referred to this motley crew as ‘Philip’s funny friends’. There were rumours of wild parties, even of orgies, but exactly what went on at the club has never been substantiated. ‘We’ve been given the reputation of being wild,’ said Parker, ‘but the truth is we enjoyed fun and going around with people who knew what was going on . . . the idea that it was a drunken orgy is absolute rubbish. People got very merry but never drunk. As far as being wild, not guilty. As far as hanging around women, not guilty.’

  Eileen Parker, who thought Philip’s friends were ‘distinctly odd’, had known him for several years before he married the future Queen. From the very first, she said, ‘He was a real loner. He was very good looking; tall, with that blond hair and those piercing blue eyes. You would turn and say, “Who’s that?” “Oh, that’s Prince Philip of Greece, but he never has anything to do with anybody.” ’

  Marriage had not mellowed him. He was a man of his time and background, just as his wife was a woman of hers. Very much a man’s man, he enjoyed drinking and jesting with his cronies and continued to keep to a bachelor routine. On one occasion, he and Parker were so late back to Clarence House that he found the gates locked and had to climb in over them. ‘Serves them both right,’ his wife commented drily.

  Parker remembered those early years as ‘incredibly happy, just gorgeous’. He oversaw all the prince’s engagements and the pair picked up each other’s phrases, copied each other’s mannerisms and shared each other’s jokes. They became well known for their elaborate practical jok
es, and on one occasion during an RAF manoeuvre at the palace, they telephoned the Air Ministry and played a tape of a Battle of Britain dogfight down the line then shouted: ‘Help! One of your pilots has gone berserk and he’s strafing the palace!’

  The palace old guard did not approve. They were most concerned with his apparent desire to continue bachelor friendships with people of somewhat dubious reputation. Their attitude, rather than reining him back, seemed only to spur Philip on his own way. Independent and single-minded, he disliked the constraints imposed by his membership of the royal family. Learning to fly a helicopter proved difficult, even though he had already earned his ‘wings’ in 1953. When Prime Minister Winston Churchill heard that Philip was learning to become a helicopter pilot as well, he summoned Parker to Downing Street, kept him standing in silence for several minutes while he carried on working at his desk, then gave him ‘a long accusing stare’ and coldly asked: ‘Is your objective the destruction of the whole of the royal family?’

  In the spring of 1949, Elizabeth and Philip toured Lancashire by train followed by a tour of the Channel Islands on the training battleship HMS Anson and at last were able to move into Clarence House. Under Philip’s supervision, Clarence House had been fitted out with the latest household gadgets including an intercom system, washing machines in the laundry and an electric trouser press for Philip’s valet. The servants’ quarters had a radio in every bedroom and a television, still something of a novelty, was in the staff sitting room. Much of the furniture and fittings in the house had been wedding presents. Both Elizabeth and Philip had offices next door at St James’s Palace, to which Clarence House was connected by a passage on the first floor leading into the state apartments. The staff were mainly young and Parker described the atmosphere as being full of fun, very different from Buckingham Palace where, according to Parker, ‘Philip didn’t have many friends and helpers’.

  The King’s health improved in the summer, not enough for him to take on an arduous overseas tour, but sufficient for him to allow Philip to return to active service in the navy. Philip was posted as first lieutenant to HMS Chequers, the lead ship of the Mediterranean destroyer fleet based in Malta. The advantage of Malta was that Elizabeth could fly out to join her husband for lengthy stays.

  While Chequers was being refitted in the dockyards in Malta, Philip stayed with Dickie Mountbatten in the villa he had rented while commander of the First Cruiser Squadron. Elizabeth joined them for her second wedding anniversary in November. Her time in Malta has been described as the only time in her life when she could live like an ordinary naval wife, driving herself, going to the hairdresser and shopping. It was a life less ordinary.

  The villa Guardamangia had a staff of nineteen and Elizabeth usually had her lady-in-waiting and detective in tow. A governor’s ball was held in her honour and she was soon called upon to perform civic duties, visiting schools and hospitals. Dickie Mountbatten wrote to his daughter Patricia in December: ‘Lilibet is quite enchanting and I’ve lost whatever of my heart is left to spare entirely to her. She dances quite divinely and always wants a samba when we dance together and has said some very nice things about my dancing.’ The princess made several trips to Malta, the longest being for eleven weeks, during which time baby Prince Charles was left behind with his grandparents, so the family was rarely in one place together. Mike Parker commuted regularly between Clarence House and Malta, keeping Philip up to date with his new interests at home, such as the National Playing Fields Association.

  Prince Philip was in his element back on board ship. He was a strict disciplinarian and drove the crew hard in any sporting contests. In off-duty moments, he took up polo and soon became proficient, playing on the same team as his uncle Dickie. There was a minor blip in Philip’s naval progression when he failed an oral section of his command examination. It is thought that he had fallen foul of the examiner on the polo field, who took the opportunity to get even by failing Philip. According to Mike Parker, Philip’s commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir Arthur Power, wanted to overrule the examiner. Philip would have none of it, stating: ‘If they try to fix it I quit the navy for good.’ He re-sat the exam and passed with flying colours. Soon after, in July 1950, Philip was promoted to lieutenant-commander and appointed to his first command, the frigate HMS Magpie. Before he was piped aboard his new ship, Philip returned to Clarence House for the birth of his daughter Princess Anne the following month.

  Philip made sure that his ship became the best in the fleet. He was tough and fair and it brought results. Magpie excelled at manoeuvres and carried off six of ten events in the annual regatta. As ‘cock o’ the fleet’, a red plywood rooster was hoisted aloft. Magpie’s tour of duty was a combination of naval exercises and ceremonial visits. In Gibraltar, he represented the King at the opening of their legislative council; Magpie sailed to Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Iran on courtesy visits. When Elizabeth had recovered from the birth of Princess Anne, she again flew out to Malta in November, leaving the children with their grandparents. As Magpie did not have suitable accommodation for Elizabeth, the Admiral of the Fleet put another vessel, HMS Surprise, at her disposal. With Philip on his own ship, there was much fun had with the exchange of signals, the best-known being:

  Surprise to Magpie: Princess full of beans

  Magpie to Surprise: Can’t you give her something better for breakfast?

  The royal couple paid an unofficial visit to Greece to stay with Philip’s cousin King Paul. They stayed in the royal palace in Athens where the Parthenon was floodlit in their honour. According to cousin Alexandra, when Philip took King Paul aboard Magpie he was astonished to find that Philip’s quarters were full of papers on which Philip was working, including preparations for the Festival of Britain and the overseas tour of Canada. Philip had an interest in the festival as a showpiece for the inventiveness of British scientists and for British technology. It was planned for the centenary of the Great Exhibition, in which Prince Albert had played such an important role.

  Although frail, George VI opened the festival on 3 May 1951, but he was soon struck down with a bug he could not shake off. His doctors ordered complete rest and cancellation of all public engagements; Elizabeth and Philip would have to take over. In July, Philip left Malta ‘on indefinite leave’. As the crew of Magpie lined the decks to cheer him off, he said: ‘I have kept my promise to make HMS Magpie one of the finest ships in the fleet. The past eleven months have been the happiest of my sailor life.’ Back at Clarence House, he looked sadly at his white naval uniforms and said to John Dean: ‘It will be a long time before I want those again.’

  During the summer, Elizabeth stood in for her father at many public engagements, including Trooping the Colour. Detailed plans had been made for Elizabeth and Philip to pay an official state visit to Canada in September, but the King had been advised by his doctors that he should have an operation to remove his left lung, which was duly performed. Rather than set sail for Canada in the days after the operation, Philip persuaded the government that he and the princess should travel by air to avoid delaying the start of the tour.

  When they landed, a nervous 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth stepped out onto the airplane gangway in Montreal on 8 October 1951, a crowd of 15,000 before her on the tarmac. She was about to begin her first major royal visit, during which she would be the centre of attention. The tour lasted thirty-three days during which time the royal couple travelled from coast to coast and back again. The tour was a great success, with hugely enthusiastic crowds at every stop.

  The Canadian authorities had taken the greatest care to ensure that everyone involved, including the press, behaved impeccably. The same cannot be said of the American press when the royal couple made a short side trip to visit President Truman in Washington. Once back in Canada, Elizabeth displayed her skill at mimicry when she mocked the US photographers while she was doing some filming of her own. Pointing the camera at her husband, she cried out in a nasally American voice, ‘Hey! You there! Hey, Dook!
Look this way a sec! Dat’s it! Thanks a lot!’

  Elizabeth had this to say about Canada, once she was back in the UK: ‘I am sure that nowhere under the sun could one find a land more full of hope, of happiness and of fine, loyal, generous-hearted people. They have placed in our hearts a love for their country and its people which will never grow cold and which will always draw us to their shores.’

  The news at home was better. The King had progressed well since his operation, so much so that it seemed possible that Philip would again be able to return to active service as the commander of his own destroyer. Winston Churchill was prime minster again, the Conservatives having won a general election in late October with a moderate majority of seventeen. Christmas was spent at Sandringham, with the King going out shooting on several days.

  When they returned to London, the royal family went to see the musical South Pacific at the Drury Lane Theatre. The following day, on 31 January, the King waved goodbye to Elizabeth and Philip at London Airport as they set off on the first leg of their Commonwealth tour on a flight to Nairobi. The princess had few doubts that she would see her father again – after all, he had appeared to have made a good recovery from the operation, and she wanted to believe he would get better. As a precaution, however, the princess was given a sealed dossier containing the draft Accession Declaration, to be opened in the event of the King’s death. A Royal Standard was also tucked away in the luggage, as were black mourning clothes.

  Lord Chandos, the colonial secretary, described the scene at the airport as Elizabeth and Prince Philip left Heathrow: ‘The King and Queen came to see them take off . . . I was shocked by the King’s appearance. I was familiar with his look and mien, but he seemed much altered and strained. I had the feeling of doom, which grew as the minutes before the time of departure ebbed away. The King went on to the roof of the building to wave goodbye. The high wind blew his hair into disorder. I felt with foreboding that this would be the last time he was to see his daughter, and that he thought so himself.’